Lactuca cypria, the Cyprus lettuce, is a biennial, erect herb with glandular, hairy stems and a globose rhizome. Leaves alternate, simple, the basal large, oblong, petiolate, 10-15 x 5–7 cm, pinnatisect with a suborbicular terminal lobe, the upper smaller, often with a profound purple colour at the lower surface. Flowers in heads, capitula in corymbs, florets pale yellow, all ligulate, flowers April–July, fruit a pappose achene.The Endemic Plants of Cyprus, Texts: Takis Ch. Tsintides, Photographs: Laizos Kourtellarides, Cyprus Association of Professional Foresters, Bank of Cyprus Group, Nicosia 1998,
Habitat In moist, shaded positions, by streams and moist hillsides among pines and riverine forest on igneous formations at 800–1950 m altitude.
Distribution Endemic to Cyprus where it is confined to the Troödos Mountains where it in some areas is fairly common: Tripylos, Stavros Psokas, Kryos Potamos, Troödos Forest, Khionistra.
References