Lactuca quercinaL.

WFO wfo-0000136535 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Lactuca quercina, photographed by carnifex
fig. a carnifex, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-07-22 / obs. 87020796
Lactuca quercina, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. b Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159635905
Lactuca quercina, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. c Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 164356548
Lactuca quercina, photographed by Максим Шумских
fig. d Максим Шумских, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 81414573
Lactuca quercina, photographed by Valerii Darmostuk
fig. e Valerii Darmostuk, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 86123645
Lactuca quercina, photographed by Наталья Пикалова
fig. f Наталья Пикалова, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 79144595
Lactuca quercina, photographed by Татьяна Горбушина
fig. g Татьяна Горбушина, CC0 1.0 / obs. 163793110
Lactuca quercina, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. h Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 132448875

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 21 botanical countries

Regions where Lactuca quercina is native: Iran, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, South European Russia, Sweden, Ukraine IranNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFranceGermanyHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSouth European RussiaSwedenUkraine
Native distribution of Lactuca quercina, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Germany GER
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Sweden SWE
Ukraine UKR
Iran IRN ASIA-TEMPERATE
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Himalaya WHM ASIA-TROPICAL

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 387 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -11.8 °C -7.5 °C -1.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.9 °C 25.4 °C 27.2 °C
Annual rainfall 501 mm 600 mm 810 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 85 mm 109 mm 166 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 387 research-grade observations of Lactuca quercina that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 33 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Cicerbita corymbosa Wallr.
  • Cicerbita quercina (L.) Wallr.
  • Lactuca altissima M.Bieb.
  • Lactuca chaixii Vill.
  • Lactuca chaixii var. chaixii
  • Lactuca chaixii var. laciniata Cariot & St.-Lag.
  • Lactuca lipskyi Krasch.
  • Lactuca lipskyi Grossh.
  • Lactuca quercina subsp. chaixii (Vill.) Čelak.
  • Lactuca quercina subsp. genuina Čelak.
  • Lactuca quercina subsp. sagittata (Waldst. & Kit.) Soó & Jáv.
  • Lactuca quercina subsp. stricta (Waldst. & Kit.) Hegi
  • Lactuca quercina subsp. typica Beck
  • Lactuca quercina var. heterophylla Soó
  • Lactuca quercina var. integrifolia Bisch.
  • Lactuca quercina var. pinnatifida Bisch.
  • Lactuca sagittata Waldst. & Kit.
  • Lactuca sagittata var. macrodons Schur
  • Lactuca stricta Waldst. & Kit.
  • Lactuca stricta var. armena Boiss.
  • Lactuca stricta var. heterophylla Bogenh.
  • Lactuca stricta var. integrifolia Bogenh.
  • Lactuca stricta var. runcinata Bogenh.
  • Lactuca stricta var. stricta

and 9 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.