The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Lactuca
Also called Blue Sow Thistle, Lettuces, Wild Lettuces
Lactuca is a genus of about 117 species in the daisy family, best known through garden lettuce (L. sativa), with many wild relatives that are often weeds. Most are drought-tolerant, sun-loving plants whose growth form ranges from annuals to shrubs.
Lactuca, commonly known as lettuce, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. The genus includes at 117 recognized species, distributed worldwide, but mainly in temperate Eurasia.
Its best-known representative is the garden lettuce (Lactuca sativa), with its many varieties. "Wild lettuce" commonly refers to the wild-growing relatives of common garden lettuce. Many species are common weeds. Lactuca species are diverse and take a wide variety of forms. They are annuals, biennials, perennials, or shrubs. Their flower heads have yellow, blue, or white ray florets. Some species are bitter-tasting.
Lactuca species are used as food plants by the larvae of many Lepidoptera species.
Tall blue lettuce · Canada lettuce · Indian lettuce · Willowleaf lettuce · Celtuce · Iceberg lettuce · Romaine lettuce · Lettuce · Prickly lettuce · Bitter lettuce
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lactuca by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
