Lactuca raddeana
Lactuca raddeana Maxim.
Lactuca raddeana is a biennial or perennial wild lettuce species native to Vietnam, eastern China, the Korean peninsula, the Russian Far East, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and Japan. It can grow up to 2 m tall and exhibits a wide range of leaf variation, from undivided to pinnatipartite. The species is edible but has a bitter taste.
Description
Lactuca raddeana, described by Maxim. in 1874, belongs to the Asteraceae family. It is characterized by underground, narrow-fusiform thickenings and a weakly sulcate, often reddish stem that is densely covered with narrow squamiform hairs and branches above. The leaves are highly variable, green above and glaucous beneath, with spinose teeth, a reddish frill, and short squamiform hairs. Lower leaves are early-withering, with lyrate-pinnatisect lamina, while middle and upper cauline leaves have broad-winged petioles and varied lamina shapes. Capitula with 9-15 florets are almost cylindrical, with slender peduncles and a two-rowed involucre. Involucral bracts are herbaceous, with inner bracts being narrow-ovate and often reddish.
Distribution
Hebei · Shaanxi · Hokkaido · Vietnam · Kuril Is. · Fujian · Khabarovsk · Sichuan · Amur · Primorye · Gansu · Hubei · Henan · North Korea · Jiangxi · Guangxi · Hunan · Kyushu · Anhui · Sakhalin · Shandong · Yunnan · Guangdong · Shanxi · South Korea · Honshu · Shikoku · Guizhou · Jilin · China North-Central
Synonyms
Pterocypsela elataPterocypsela raddeanaLactuca aogashimaensisLactuca nakaianaLactuca raddeana var. raddeanaPrenanthes hieraciifoliaLactuca alliariifoliaLactuca raddeana var. elataLactuca raddeana var. compactaLactuca elataLactuca vaniotiiLactuca raddeana var. aogashimensis
