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Red Wood Lettuce (Lactuca hirsuta Muhl. ex Nutt.)

Also known as hairy lettuce, red-flowered wild lettuce, tall hairy lettuce.

Some authorities recognize varieties of this and label the red-flowering one, which is most common, Lactuca hirsuta var. sanguinea. We follow POWO's treatment, which does not recognize any varieties or subspecies of this one.

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Summary
Range
Similar Plants
Habitat
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↑Summary

An uncommon to rare biennial native to the eastern US, favoring dry, sandy or rocky woodlands.

↑Range - Expand

Legend	Color
Native
Introduced or Not Present
Native or Not Present
Extirpated
Native or Introduced

This tentative map is based on our own research. It may have limited data on Canada and/or Mexico, and there is some subjectivity in our assignment of plants as introduced vs. expanded. Read more in this blog post.

Although this plant occurs somewhere in each of these regions, it may only occur in a small part of some or all of them.

↑Similar Plants

American Wild Lettuce (Lactuca canadensis)
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↑Habitat

Lactuca hirsuta occurs on partly sunny sites on dry, acidic soils, usually on sandy or rocky soils. It is uncommon to rare in most of its range. Natural habitats include upland rocky woods, upland savannas, and woodland openings around rock outcroppings, particularly of sandstone. It is often associated with mixed pine-deciduous woods, but can also occur in pure deciduous woodlands. It is less likely in anthropogenic habitats but can occur in pastures, fields, and anthropogenic edges such as wooded roadsides in otherwise suitable habitat; it sometimes grows on exposed road beds when they are made of a suitable substrate.

Although the fire ecology of this species has not been thoroughly studied, NC Vascular Plants writes that it "seems to strongly favor fire for its survival", and it occurs in habitats that would have naturally burned. Its decline coincides with fire suppression following European colonization, so it is reasonable to conclude that it has been harmed by such fire suppression.

It is possible that there are unreported populations of this species, due to it being hard to identify and getting little attention. However, due to its precipitous decline, there are probably far more populations that have been extirpated without record of the loss.