Native. Biennial. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: July to September.

Seed-time: August to October.

Range: New York to Illinois and Nebraska, southward to Georgia, Florida, and Kentucky. Habitat: Meadows, pastures, fence rows, and borders of woods.

Stem two to six feet tall, round and smooth. Leaves oblong to lance-shaped, long-pointed, light green, smooth and glossy above but set with stiff bristly hairs on midrib and veins beneath, sharply and often doubly toothed, the lower ones usually lobed at the base

Fig. 378. - Blue Lettuce (Lactuca pulchella). X 1/6.

2n and narrowed to winged petioles, those on the stem sessile and clasping, sometimes auricled at base. Heads on large, loose, many-headed panicles, with diverging branchlets which usually have a few minute, scaly bracts; each less than a half-inch broad with short blue rays; bracts of the involucre obtuse, the outer row much the shorter. Achenes oblong, small, rather thick, without a beak; pappus silky white.

Means Of Control

Deep cutting of autumn tufts of leaves from the roots with spud or hoe; close cutting of all flowering stalks before the development of seed.