Common Names: prickly lettuce, china lettuce, chinese lettuce, compass plant, horse thistle, milk thistle, whip thistle, wild lettuce, wild opium
This milky-juiced annual often orients the tips of its leaves to point north and south; hence is sometimes called `compass plant.` The leaves can be from entire to deeply lobed but always have a row of small, reddish brown, prickles on the back mid-rib. The flowers heads are small and yellow with only ray flowers.