Compilation
Lactuca vanderystii

Perennial herb 5–150(–240) cm high, erect (said to be scrambling in Bidgood et al. 3870), with a long thick taproot and with milky latex; stems solitary or few, branching distally, glaucous, sometimes with reddish tinge, glabrous or setose. Leaves scattered or crowded on the lower stem, sometimes almost absent at flowering time, glaucous green, membranous, sessile, narrowly lanceolate, 5–20 cm long, 0.3–1.6 cm wide (up to 7 cm wide including lobes), base semi-amplexicaul in basal leaves, sagittate in cauline ones, margins entire or remotely denticulate and sometimes with a few lateral lobes to 3 cm long, apex acute or mucronate, glabrous or sparsely setose beneath on midrib and main veins. Capitula few (3–4) to over a hundred in a leafy panicle, the branching of the inflorescence congested to lax, the bracts sagittate; involucre cylindric, 8–12 mm long, lengthening to 18 mm and flask-shaped with swollen base after anthesis; phyllaries lanceolate, green with reddish to purple markings and tips, 2–17 mm long, acute, the very apex with a little hair-tuft. Florets 2–14 per capitulum; corolla blue or mauve, less often pink, yellow or white, tube cylindric, 4–6 mm long, densely pilose distally, ligule 6–11 mm long, 1–2.6 mm wide. Achenes dark brown to black, ellipsoid, 4.5–8.5 mm long including a beak of 1.5–2.5 mm long, 1-ribbed on each face, glabrous or hispidulous; pappus in several series, white, 5–7 mm long. Fig. 21; fig. 20/8 (achene).