Prickly lettuce-Lactuca serriola

Prickly lettuce-Lactuca serriola, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Not one of my favorite plants. Very invasive in the garden and unpleasant to handle without gloves. Plus the flowers are small and pale yellow, seemingly an after thought. But even the most noxious weed has some redeeming features...OK maybe not musk thistle-but seen in the right light even this plant does. Also it turns out-if WIkipedea can be trusted that this plant is the closest relative of cultivated lettuce.