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Lactuca indica; photograph (c) mami_t_t, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) mami_t_t, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-12

Lactuca indica L.

Indian lettuce; Wild Lettuce

Asteraceae · Chita, Amur +21

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Lactuca indica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLactuca indica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLactuca indica, photograph (c) ITÔ, Hiroki, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lactuca indica, photograph (c) ITÔ, Hiroki, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lactuca indica, photograph (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lactuca indica, photograph (c) 黃美滿, some rights reserved (CC BY) 68 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-7.9°C
Record low -13.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,527mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–36DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Lactuca indica, Indian lettuce, is a species of plant in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae. It is native to western China (Xinjiang, Tibet), the Himalayas, and southwest Asia, as far west as Turkey. It is widely introduced elsewhere, even as far as east Africa, and is thought to be an archaeophyte in Japan, brought in with rice cultivation.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lactuca indica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Lactuca

Lactuca, commonly known as lettuce, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. The genus includes at 117 recognized species, distributed worldwide, but mainly in temperate Eurasia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lactuca", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,075 mm of 1,458 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.0 °C against a yearly mean of 13.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,458 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,075 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 300 mm, driest month December at 31 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 967 mm to 3,142 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,527 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,458 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -7.9 °C, the absolute minimum -13.6 °C, 2,486 frost nights in 44 years, 56.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -3.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -12.0 °C to 13.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.8 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -7.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +262 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Lactuca indica through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -3.3 °C; 1,458 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost29.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-13.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 15–36RH 56–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 852 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C4 / -1–186 / 1–1810 / 6–2117 / 12–2421 / 17–2725 / 21–2927 / 24–3028 / 25–3024 / 21–2819 / 16–2612 / 8–236 / 1–19
Night °C-3 / -12–13-2 / -9–142 / -3–167 / 3–1913 / 9–2217 / 14–2422 / 18–2622 / 19–2518 / 14–2412 / 7–225 / -1–19-1 / -7–15
Rain mm35 / 18–13847 / 20–16869 / 36–18992 / 54–205118 / 79–302183 / 115–391300 / 168–427289 / 151–407185 / 115–44457 / 41–22352 / 30–16431 / 18–137
DLI17 / 14–2023 / 19–2429 / 25–3035 / 29–3636 / 31–3735 / 31–3631 / 27–3831 / 28–3527 / 25–3024 / 21–2717 / 16–2215 / 13–19
RH %57 / 53–6456 / 53–6557 / 54–6558 / 53–6660 / 56–6664 / 59–6967 / 64–7166 / 64–6962 / 60–6758 / 56–6557 / 55–6457 / 53–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 852 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1116 records in those cells; 6 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1086:6187 (35.675, 129.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -13.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -7.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 852 distinct grid cells holding 1116 of the 1123 in-range records (6 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1086:6187 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.50_129.375, lapse-corrected +262 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 329 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChita, Amur, Khabarovsk, Primorye, China South-Central, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, East Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Philippines · introduced: Central African Republic, KwaZulu-Natal, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Seychelles, Jamaica · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker36.932, 127.382 · in the densest population, 722 records (44% of those in range)
Kew's description“biennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1651 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1116 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1123 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 669 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 731 km away. 108 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 528 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1651 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Lactuca indica, photograph 1did not loadLactuca indica, photograph 2did not loadLactuca indica, photograph 3did not loadLactuca indica, photograph 4did not loadLactuca indica, photograph 5did not loadLactuca indica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) ITÔ, Hiroki, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) 黃美滿, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Acalypha australis Acalypha australis Asian copperleaf Photo: CC BY, betsyyyyHumulus scandens Humulus scandens Japanese hop Photo: CC BY, Chris StahlPotentilla hebiichigo Potentilla hebiichigo Rosaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, AlpsdakeLespedeza thunbergii Lespedeza thunbergii Thunberg's lespedeza Photo: CC BY, 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi)Liriope spicata Liriope spicata Creeping liriope Photo: CC BY, Emily FranzenPinellia ternata Pinellia ternata Crowdipper Photo: CC BY, Bonnie Semmling

Other Lactuca 16 in the reference

Lactuca biennis Lactuca biennis Tall blue lettuce Photo: CC BY, Robert StegmannLactuca canadensis Lactuca canadensis Canada lettuce Photo: CC0, author not statedLactuca floridana Lactuca floridana Woodland lettuce Photo: CC0, author not statedLactuca graminifolia Lactuca graminifolia Grass-leaf lettuce Photo: CC BY, Athena PhilipsLactuca hirsuta Lactuca hirsuta Hairy lettuce Photo: CC BY, Quinten WiegersmaLactuca muralis Lactuca muralis Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Anneli SaloLactuca perennis Lactuca perennis Mountain lettuce Photo: CC BY-SA, Emanuele SantarelliLactuca plumieri Lactuca plumieri Hairless blue-sow-thistle Photo: CC BY-SA, Luc AudrainLactuca quercina Lactuca quercina Wild lettuce Photo: CC BY, Илья РуденкоLactuca saligna Lactuca saligna Least lettuce Photo: CC BY, Duarte FradeLactuca sativa Lactuca sativa Garden lettuce Photo: CC0, author not statedLactuca serriola Lactuca serriola Prickly lettuce Photo: CC BY, Анна Митрошенкова all 17 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Brachyramphus heyneanus; Brachyramphus sinicus; Brachyramphus sonchifolius; Brachyramphus taraxacoides; Brachyrhamphus sinicus and 65 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Chita, Amur, Khabarovsk +20
Wild records
1651 in range · 669 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 41 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (26 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 7 at a herbarium, 8 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.50_129.375, lapse-corrected +262 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 126 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…