Launaea rarifolia(Oliv. & Hiern) Boulos

WFO wfo-0000129192 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Launaea rarifolia, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. a Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-10-18 / obs. 164359684
Launaea rarifolia, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. b Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 164359687
Launaea rarifolia, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. c Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 164359677

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Accession
K000027694
Filed as
Launaea rarifolia (Oliv. & Hiern) Boulos
Det. by
Kilian, N.
Collected
Brunt, M.A. 1962-03-04
Origin
CM
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 30 botanical countries

Regions where Launaea rarifolia is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Central African Republic, Congo, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBeninBotswanaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesCentral African RepublicCongoDR CongoEswatiniEthiopiaGabonGhanaGuineaIvory CoastKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMalawiMaliMozambiqueNamibiaNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Launaea rarifolia, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Central African Republic CAF
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Ivory Coast IVO
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

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.

Also published as 17 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.

  • Brachyramphus nudicaulis Klatt
  • Lactuca pauciflora (Baker) Humbert
  • Lactuca stenocephala Baker
  • Lactuca varianii I.M.Johnst.
  • Lactuca welwitschii Scott Elliot
  • Launaea fischeri (O.Hoffm.) Boulos
  • Launaea macer (S.Moore) Boulos
  • Launaea macra (S.Moore) Boulos
  • Launaea pauciflora (Baker) Humbert & Boulos
  • Sonchus fischeri O.Hoffm.
  • Sonchus lanifer Dinter
  • Sonchus macer S.Moore
  • Sonchus pauciflorus Baker
  • Sonchus rarifolius Oliv. & Hiern
  • Sonchus verdickii (De Wild.) R.E.Fr.
  • Sonchus welwitschii (Scott-Elliot) Chiov.
  • Sonchus welwitschii (Scott-Elliot) Chiov. ex S.Moore

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.