Day 309: Given the abundance of Lactuca taking over the roadsides of Pierce and Thurston Counties, you'd think it was highly unlikely to fall under the category of "discoveries." I'm not sure I want my reputation in the botanical community to rest long on a weed, but as humble beginnings go, at least I have a toe in the door.
First off, I was sure I had two species since the leaf shape was radically different from specimen to specimen. I took photos of both, expecting to be able to sort them out easily. Finding it much more difficult than I'd imagined, I sent the images off to my contact at the WTU Herbarium. He replied, "You'll have to examine the fruit. Leaf morphology can be highly variable with Lactuca." He went on to say that he thought that my plants were all Lactuca serriola, and added, "...but Ben Legler reported Lactuca virosa in Lewis County." Off I went to gather seeds.
Upon arriving home with a selection of mature fruits from various individual plants, I put them under the microscope and compared them to images of L. serriola and L. virosa. The two are visually distinct, and my specimens all appeared to be Lactuca virosa. I sent the microscope image back to David at WTU and his enthusiastic reply made my day: "Thanks for sending the great batches of photos! As usual, these will go up on Thursday. Your images of L. virosa are the first ever for the Image Gallery. We have images for 2,863 species, so adding a new species at this point is quite impressive! The leaf and inflorescence differences between L. serriola and L. virosa are nuanced and largely indistinguishable. The fruits are truly diagnostic."
It's a weed. It's just a weed. It's my claim to fame at the moment, although something else much larger is in the works!
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