Fauna
Plant · GBIF taxon 3140419

Common Blue Lettuce

Lactuca pulchella

Also known as Wild Blue Lettuce, Showy Blue Lettuce, Large-flowered Blue Lettuce

Common blue lettuce spreads through deep, creeping rootstocks across sunlit prairies and roadsides, often forming dense clonal patches topped with soft violet-blue blossoms. Like many wild lettuces, broken stems bleed a milky latex that contains bitter sesquiterpene lactones to deter herbivores. Each composite flower head opens only in the morning and tracks the sun before closing tightly by midday.

WildflowerPerennialPrairie Native
Common Blue Lettuce reference1 / 7
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Least ConcernConservation statusIUCN Red List categoriesLCNTVUENCREWEXLeast ConcernRed List categories, explained →
Key facts
Diet & prey
  • Photosynthetic autotroph
Predators
  • White-tailed Deer
  • Elk
  • Grasshoppers
ThreatsBroadcast herbicide applications, heavy grazing, and competition from aggressive invasive weeds
HabitatsPrairies, open meadows, stream banks, sagebrush steppe, and disturbed roadsides
Life spanPerennial (several to many years via extensive creeping rhizomes)
Classification
  1. FamilyAsteraceae
  2. SpeciesLactuca pulchella
Range & activity
Range data is not available yet.
Safe observation
Interaction riskLow
  1. Low
  2. Moderate
  3. High
  4. Very high
Why interaction risk is low
Safe to observe at a normal distance.
Responsible observation
  • Timing: Look for open blossoms during early morning hours, as flower heads usually curl shut by afternoon heat.
  • Identification: Check the stem for bitter white sap and smooth, clasping blue-green leaves without spine-tipped midribs.
  • Ethnobotany: Indigenous peoples historically chewed the dried milky latex as gum and used infusions for minor pain relief.
Related species
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