Common Name: MINER'S LETTUCE FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb; generally fleshy. Stem: 1--many, generally glabrous. Leaf: simple, alternate or opposite. Inflorescence: axillary or terminal; cyme, raceme, panicle, umbel, or flower 1. Flower: bisexual, radial; sepals generally 2(9), free; petals (1)2--19, free or +- fused; stamens 1--many, epipetalous or not, anthers pink, rose, or yellow; ovary superior, chamber 1, ovules 1--many, placenta basal or free-central; styles (0)1--8, generally fused at base, branched. Fruit: capsule, circumscissile or 2--3-valved. Seed: 1--many, shiny or +- pebbly or sculptured, black or gray, generally with oil-filled appendage as food for ants.
Genera In Family: +- 22 genera, +- 230 species: generally temperate America, Asia, Australia, Europe, Kerguelen Is, New Zealand, southern Africa, poorly represented in Europe; some cultivated (Lewisia, Calandrinia). Note: All CA genera previously included in Portulacaceae; details of flowers, seeds require 20× magnification.
Unabridged Note: May include Hectorellaceae.
eFlora Treatment Author: John M. Miller, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Habit: Annual, perennial herb, from stolon, rhizome, tuberous root, or taproot, glabrous, +- fleshy. Leaf: entire; basal generally 0--many, rosetted; cauline generally 2, +- opposite, free, +- fused on 1 side, or fused into +- disk. Inflorescence: terminal, raceme, 1-sided; pedicel reflexed, in fruit erect. Flower: petals 5, pink or white; stamens 5; ovary chamber 1, placentas basal, style 1, stigmas 3. Fruit: valves 3, margins inrolling, forcibly expelling seeds. Seed: 3--6, generally black, generally appendaged.
Species In Genus: 27 species: Central America, North America, eastern Asia, Siberia. Etymology: (John Clayton, colonial American botanist, 1694--1773)
eFlora Treatment Author: John M. Miller & Kenton L. Chambers

Common Name: MINER'S LETTUCE
Habit: Annual. Stem: 1--40 cm, spreading to erect. Leaf: basal 1--25 cm, blade < 4 cm, < 3 × longer than wide, elliptic to reniform, tip rounded to acute, petiole linear; cauline fused into < 10 cm diam, round, +- obtuse-angled, or +- square disk (or free on 1 side). Inflorescence: stalked or not, open or dense, 1-bracted at base; flowers 5--40. Flower: sepals 1.5--5 mm; petals 2--6 mm, white or +- pink. Fruit: 1.5--4 mm. Seed: 1.2--2.7 mm, ovate to round, shiny, smooth.
Note: Highly variable; subspecies difficult because of environmental modification of character states, genetic mixing among polyploids, and geographic overlap of distinct, self-pollinated forms.