Single Record
Participant Info
- Species
- Lactuca oblongifolia [Mulgedium pulchellum] [Lactuca tatarica var. pulchella] [Lactuca pulchellum] [Sonchus pulchellus]
- Family
- Asteraceae
- CommonName
- blue lettuce
- Presence
- YES
- Status
- native
- EarliestDate
- 1916
- LatestDate
- 2021
- Ecosystem
- basin, shrubland, foothill, montane
- Geobotanical
- Garitas, SSanjuans, NCristos, UBasin
- Counties
- Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, Archuleta
- Passes
- WildlifePreserves
- Alamosa, Baca, Blanca Wetlands, Russell Lakes, San Luis Lakes
- Other Localities
- Comments
- Blue lettuce may be "common" elsewhere in Colorado (Ackerfield 2015), but from the east of the Valley there is only one record (Arraca Cemetery in foothills south of the Great Sand Dunes NP), and in the ranges to the west, it is still not very often collected. For habitat, it prefers marginal terrain, such as floodplains, creek banks, moist washes, and road and street sides. Lactuca oblongifolia may be native to the USA, or perhaps conspecific with the Old World species Lactuca tatarica. BONAP, which takes the USA species as native, shows it present in all Western states and in the northern half of the Great Plains. It follows the Rio Grande drainage down to the Big Bend country of Texas. Allred et al. (2020) state that recent molecular analysis indicates the species belongs in the Genus Lactuca, not Mulgedium, and that the specific name oblongifolia takes precedence over tatarica by priority of publication.
- Annotation