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Photographer: Emmet J. Judziewicz
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Family Asteraceae
Lactuca serriola L.
compass-plant, prickly lettuce
Lactuca: name for "milk"
serriola: either in ranks, or pertaining to salad, being one form of an old name for chicory
Hazardous 
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| Status: | Introduced - naturalized |
| Plant: | erect, annual/biennial, 1'-5' tall forb with milky juice; stems leafy, smooth except for prickles at the bottom |
| Flower: | head 3/8" wide with 18-24 yellow rays, drying to a bluish-white; inflorescence with many heads in a long, conical, loosely-branched cluster; blooms July-Sept. |
| Fruit: | dry seed with several obvious lines on both sides |
| Leaf: | varying from entire, toothed, to pinnately-divided with narrow to arrow-shaped base, spiny edges and midrib |
| Habitat: | disturbed sites, fields |
| (Glossary) |
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