Biorepository Data Portal

FNA 2006, Kearney and Peebles 1969, McDougall 1973

Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Herbaceous biennials to perennials, to 100 cm tall, glabrous, stems leafy, with milky sap, plants with spreading rhizomes. Leaves: Alternate, linear-lanceolate to oblong, 5-15 cm long, margins entire to dentate or pinnatifid, not spinulose, faces glabrous. Flowers: Heads small to medium, blue to purple, radiate, rays , 1-, disk flowers , receptacle , involucres 14-20 mm high, cylindrical, phyllaries overlapping in 3-4 series, inflorescences borne Fruits: Achenes strongly flattened, to 4 mm long, with several ribs on each face, contracted into a beak with a disk at the apex, the beak about half as long as the body. Pappus of white, copious, early deciduous capillary bristles. Ecology: Found from 6,000-7,500 ft (1829-2286 m); flowering summer. Distribution: Saskatchewan to British Columbia, south to Missouri, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Notes: Look to the blue flowers, the phyllaries in 3-4 series, and the ribed achenes to help identify this species. Needs editing, further research....I cannot find a definitive source for L. tatrica, only L. tatrica var. pulchella, although they do not seem to be conisdered the same species-checked Jepson, FNA, older texts have L. tatrica var. pulchella only-.information listed for this species so far is from L. tatrica var. pulchella..... Ethnobotany: Unknown Etymology: Lactuca is Latin for milky sap, while tatarica is a reference to Tatars, the Turkic peoples living in the old USSR. Synonyms: Mulgedium tataricum- Editor: LCrumbacher 2011