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What is the strange lore of lettuce?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

September 9, 2002

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Romaine, Salad Bowl, Green Ice Leaf, Black-Seeded Simpson, Ithaca, Red Sails—>Click here.

There are an estimated fifty species of wild lettuce (Lactuca spp. Linnaeus) around the world; most are native to the Northern Hemisphere. The name Lactuca comes from the Latin lac (milk) for the bitter white sap or latex produced by the plants. Varying with the species, wild lettuce sap is toxic with embarrassing physiological effects.

Lettuce Blend Seed Tossed Salad in a Single Packet—Gurney's Choice Deliciously crisp and colorful mix is equal parts Romaine, Black-Seeded Simpson, Salad Bowl and Red Sails leaf lettuce. A fantastic blend. Click here - $20 off your first order at Gurneys! [Lettuce Seed] [Vegetable Seeds]

In the 1633 edition of The Herbal, Thomas Johnson listed a species he called "Lactuca sylvestris, major odore Opij or The greater wilde Lettuce smelling of Opium." Adulterating drugs is obviously an old tradition dating to the Roman Empire. Johnson reported "saith Dioscorides, mix the milkie juice hereof with Opium in the making thereof." In 1933, Mrs. Grieve (A Modern Herbal) wrote "In the United States, after importation from Germany via England it (wild lettuce latex) is said to be used as an adulterant for opium."

Wild lettuce had few medicinal uses. Johnson recommended lettuce "beaten and applied...is good against burnes and scaldes....it procureth sleepe, asswages paine...and is drunke against the stingings of scorpions, and bitings of spiders."

In American Medicinal Plants (1892, reprinted 1974), Charles F. Millspaugh wrote that the American wild lettuce (Lactuca canadensis Linnaeus) "has been used in early practice as an anodyne, diaphoretic, laxative, and diuretic...principally, however, in hypochondria...phthisis pulmonalis (pulmonary tuberculosis)...and nervous complaints in general." Apparently by the late 1800s, wild lettuce medicines were mainly for a placebo effect.

Somewhere in its use as an adulterant and placebo, wild lettuce got a reputation as a drug. Millspaugh wrote "Although Lettuce has been considered narcotic from ancient times, still it is but slightly soporific (sleep causing), and hardly deserves a tithe of the reputation writers have made of it."

The Connecticut Botanical Society has photographs of Lactuca canadensis taken by Eleanor Saulys and Janet Novak. To view the photographs, click on the link:

http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/lactucacana.html

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Romaine Head Lettuce

Gurney's Seed and Nursery®

Tasty, Loosely Folded Heads

PARIS WHITE COS.

Piquant flavor sets it apart from the other lettuces.

Romaine Lettuce produces vase-shaped heads 10 inches tall. 70 DAYS. Zones: 3 - 9 (-30° F.) Click here - $20 off your first order at Gurneys! [All Lettuce!]

[Vegetable Seed!] [Vegetable Plants!]

Grow several types of lettuce for a mix of colors and textures. Leaf lettuce has loose rosettes, produces over a longer season and is more heat tolerant. Head lettuce forms round heads and tends to be more crispy in texture.

Salad Bowl Lettuce

Gurney's Seed and Nursery®

Heat Resistant--Slow to Bolt

Top quality! Close-set, deep-lobed, brilliant green leaves--easy to harvest.

Noted for lasting sweetness and tenderness. Stays crisp and tasty even after the weather becomes hot. 45 DAYS. Zones: 3 - 9 (-30° F.) Click here - $20 off your first order at Gurneys! [All Lettuce!]

[Vegetable Seed!] [Vegetable Plants!]

Comments: Stays mild and sweet. Fast growing, big-yielding variety. Long standing. Heat resistant, does not get bitter in hot weather. Very slow to bolt.

Green Ice Leaf Lettuce

Gurney's Seed and Nursery®

Vitamin Rich and Really Sweet

Gurney's Choice Very high in nutrients and slow to bolt.

Crisp, loose heads of slightly cut, ruffled leaves. Green Ice Leaf Lettuce is bright green color, sweet taste. 45 DAYS. Zones: 3 - 9 (-30° F.) Click here - $20 off your first order at Gurneys! [All Lettuce!]

[Vegetable Seed!] [Vegetable Plants!]

Comments: Slow to bolt. Sweet lettuce. Dark green, ruffled leaves. Harvest thinnings for young greens. Harvest when 4 - 6 inches tall for salad greens. High in nutrients. Loose leaf type which forms a loose head.

Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce

Gurney's Seed and Nursery®

Early, Curly, Delicately Flavored

Favorite leaf lettuce for generations of gardeners.

Bright green leaves, tender and nicely sweet at all stages.

48 DAYS. Zones: 3 - 9 (-30° F.) Click here - $20 off your first order at Gurneys! [All Lettuce!]

[Vegetable Seed!] [Vegetable Plants!]

Comments: Leaves are also broad, crumpled, and frilled. Well able to tolerate summer heat, drought. An exceptionally good keeper. Large, upright plants. Loose leaf type. Very early and adaptable. Withstands some frost. Slow bolting. Inner leaves blanch almost white. Very popular long favored variety, fixture in North American gardens for over a hundred years.

Ithaca Head Lettuce

Gurney's Seed and Nursery®

Heat Tolerant, Really Reliable

Extends the season, slow to form seed stalks.

Produces firm, well-wrapped heads. Resists brown rib and tip burn.

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[Vegetable Seed!] [Vegetable Plants!]

Comments: Disease resistant to Brown Rib and Tip Burn. Sure heading, reliable. Tolerates muck or upland soils. Good head lettuce for Northern growers due to the days to maturity. Good for warm weather regions due to its heat tolerance, will continue to head. Slow bolting. Crisp type lettuce. Extends the season.

Red Sails Lettuce

Gurney's Seed and Nursery®

Long-Lasting Bronze Leaves

Red Snails Lettuce are a favorite for salads and garnishes.

Deep bronze-red crinkly leaves have mild, bitter-free flavor. A pretty partner for green- leaf varieties.

40 DAYS. Zones: 3 - 9 (-30° F.) Click here - $20 off your first order at Gurneys! [All Lettuce!]

[Vegetable Seed!] [Vegetable Plants!]

Comments: Slow bolting for red variety. Early. Holds color well. Mild, bitter-free flavor. Six times the Vitamin A and three times the Vitamin C as supermarket lettuce. Can be planted year round.