Crow’s Nest: a good year for wild lettuce

This has been a good year of growth for a species of wild lettuce that we see at Crow’s Nest: blue lettuce (Lactuca biennis). It is a biennial that sends up this tall shoot its second and final year of growth, setting seed for new plants.

This native species is supposed to grow up to two meters (not including the flower inflorescence which is almost a meter itself—see arrow), and this one is easily that. Here Owen (at 39″, he’s conveniently about one meter) poses next to one.

Posted by Daniel Barringer on August 28, 2012.