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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE SUNFLOWER FAMILY | |||||||||
| The sunflowers are found around the
globe in many different places, from temperate climates, like in Saskatchewan,
to mountains or in dry regions. The sunflower family is very large and contains
about 19,000 species! As you can imagine, the plants in this family can
look very different from one another. The sunflowers can be shrubs or herbs,
with many different leaf shapes and flower colours. One thing that is common
to all sunflowers is the type of flower arrangement. In this family, there
are many flowers grouped together into a head, like the one you see on a
daisy. It looks like one flower from a distance, but when you get close
you will see that it is actually made up of many, small flowers. The head
may have ray flowers on the outside and disc flowers on the inside, or only
one of the two kinds. Many of the seeds, like the dandelion, have a fluffy
structure attached to the seed. This is called the pappus and helps the
seeds to spread in the wind. You probably know a lot of plants in the sunflower family. Sunflowers can be plants you eat or plants that you may grow in the yard. For example, did you know that lettuce is from the sunflower family? So are the marigolds in the garden! Maybe you have heard of Echinacea? It is a plant in the sunflower family that is used to make medicine. Some of the sunflowers are also weeds, like the dandelion. |
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| WHITE LETTUCE | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Prenanthes alba | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| White lettuce is 50 to 150 cm tall. The stems are solitary and are often purplish. The basal leaves have long stalks that can be two to three times longer than the leaf blade. The lower leaves are lobed and coarsely toothed. The stem leaves are smaller with shorter leaf stalks and smoother edges than the lower leaves. The bracts on the heads are in three rows: two short outer rows and a long inner row. The inner row is made of eight purplish, hairless bracts. The fruits are bright yellow and distinctly ribbed. The pappus of bristles is dark to reddish-brown. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| White lettuce grows in partly shaded areas in mixed woods or aspen forests. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This plant is found in east central
to southeastern Saskatchewan in the following four ecoregions: Aspen Parkland, Boreal Transition, Mid-Boreal Upland, and Mid-Boreal Lowland. |
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| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| White lettuce is vulnerable because it is almost always locally sparse. No immediate threats are known but are quite possible in the future. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY WHITE LETTUCE | |||||||||
| * Is the pappus brown to reddish-brown? * Are the bracts hairless? * Are the ray flowers white to pink to lavender? * Did you find it in a partly shaded, forested area? | |||||||||
If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found white lettuce! |
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