Florida blue lettuce

Lactuca floridana (L.) Gaertn. (Asteraceae) is an erect biennial or short-lived perennial herb of moist woods, thickets, and stream margins across the central and southeastern United States, growing 0.6–2 m tall from a stout taproot exuding a bitter white latex. Stems are smooth, often glaucous and purplish below, and unbranched until the inflorescence. Leaves are alternate, lyrate-pinnatifid to coarsely toothed, 10–30 cm long, with the lower leaves deeply lobed and the upper progressively reduced. The inflorescence is an open, much-branched panicle of numerous heads, each 1–1.5 cm across with 11–17 pale blue to blue-violet (rarely white) ligulate ray florets and no disk. Achenes are flattened, brown to black, with a slender beak and a soft white pappus. Flowering occurs from midsummer into autumn.