Question: This plant with 5-petaled yellow flowers grows along the Halfway House Trail on the south side of Mt. Monadnock in …
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Question
This plant with 5-petaled yellow flowers grows along the Halfway House Trail on the south side of Mt. Monadnock in Jaffrey, NH. The petals are split, reminding me of a pink. The leaf (it is the lobed leaf with a spear-like point in the second photo) looks very much like that of a Prenanthes. What do you think this is? Do composites always have disc and ray flowers?
Answer
Dear DavidBlair, you have photographed Mycelis muralis (wall-lettuce), a non-native member of the Asteraceae. It is closely related to the genus Lactuca (lettuce), differing mainly in its fewer ray flowers per capitulum. And no, composites do not always have both ray and disk flowers, some have only ray flowers (like this species and dandelion), and some have only disk flowers (like Joe-pye weed, thistle, and knapweed). Best wishes.
