Lettuce

Lettuce is a temperate annual or biannual plant most often grown as a leaf vegetable. In Western countries, it is typically eaten cold and raw, in salads, hamburgers, tacos, and several other dishes. more...

In some places, including China, lettuce is typically eaten cooked, and use of the stem is as important as use of the leaf.

A lettuce plant has a short stem initially (a rosette growth habit), but when it blooms, the stem lengthens and branches, and it produces many flower heads that look like those of dandelions, but smaller. This is called bolting. When grown to eat, lettuce is harvested before it bolts.

Lettuce is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera - see list of Lepidoptera which feed on Lettuces.

History

The wild origin of our modern lettuce, Lactuca serriola, can still be seen all over Europe and the more temperate parts of Asia. It is likely that it originated on the Mediterranean rim on rocky wasteland or woodland clearings. This ancient wild relative of the modern lettuce contains a narcotic similar to opium. The Romans took advantage of this property by eating lettuce at the end of a meal to induce sleep.

In earlier times the Egyptians held a similar view of the lettuce. However as well as a hypnotic or an aid to sleep, the plant was also linked with male virility. As any vegetable gardener will know the lettuce can bolt or serge vertically upwards. This combined with a milky substance they can exude when cut could have been seen as a symbol of the male phallus ejaculating. It is thought these Egyptian plants were closely linked with the modern day cos variety and could have originated on the Turkish coast on the island of Kos.

With the vast number of lettuce varieties in existence it is near impossible to pin-point their exact origins. Certainly both the Roman and Egyptian lettuce continued to be eaten long after the two great civilisations started to decline. Many may have hybridised with the wild type serriola to make our modern sativa .

It is certain that these ancient civilisations saw the plant as both an appetite stimulant and an aid to sleep. In ancient Greece this led to confusion whether to eat the plant at the beginning or the end of a meal. An ancient dietician known as Galen from Pergamon would eat the plant to allow restful sleep and allow him to study without 'mental churnings' the following day. Somewhat contrary to this 100 years and also in ancient Greece earlier Rufus of Ephesos declared the opposite claming lettuce, 'fogged the memory and prevented clear thought'.

One of the earliest records of the modern European lettuce was in a piece by Lucas van Valkenborch who showed clear depictions of modern butterhead lettuces in his piece 'Allegory of Summer'. Although it is certain that this type existed well before the artist's death in 1597.

Varieties

Commonly recognized types of lettuce include:

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