''Lactuca tatarica'', known as blue lettuce, is a Eurasian

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the tribe

Cichorieae The Cichorieae (also called Lactuceae) are a tribe in the plant family Asteraceae that includes 93 genera, more than 1,600 sexually reproductive species and more than 7,000 apomictic species. They are found primarily in temperate regions of the E ...

within the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

. It is widespread across much of Europe and Asia. ''Lactuca tatarica'' is an herb up to 60 cm (2 feet) tall with a large taproot. Most of the leaves are near the base of the plant and are larger than leaves farther up the stem. Each flower head has about 20 blue or purple (rarely white) ray flowers and no disc flowers. Some authors have placed the North American species '' Lactuca pulchella'' as a subspecies or variety of a broader concept of ''Lactuca tatarica'', while others consider ''L. tatarica'' to occur only in Europe and Asia. ''Lactuca tatarica'' (with ''L. pulchella'' and others) is commonly separated into the genus ''Mulgedium'', as ''Mulgedium tatarica''.

References

tatarica Flora of Europe Flora of Asia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Cichorieae-stub