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gabby sia
gabby sia
@gabbysia.bsky.social
8 months ago
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Bee yoga.
#nativeplants
#pollinatorpathway
#canadalettuce

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TKG
TKG
@tkg-nc.bsky.social
1 year ago
Not only does this plant appear to have shown up by surprise but also it’s a foot tall already and has a bunch of Dandelion-esque leaves making you wonder what it is. The plant in question is commonly called Tall Lettuce, but it is also known as Canada Lettuce and Canada Wild Lettuce. Those common names seem to just be weird right? There’s no way this thing could actually be lettuce; it doesn’t even look like lettuce! Tall Lettuce’s scientific name is (Lactuca canadensis) and Lactuca is the genus name of all of the true lettuce plants just like the ones you get at the store. Tall Lettuce is actually the wild cousin of that head of flavorless Iceberg Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) in the produce aisle. How, the mighty have fallen to become a flavor free orb with barely any green color, but I digress. Lettuce is in the Aster family so it is related to Marigolds, Zinnias and Sunflowers and a few others you can think of. The USDA recognizes that Tall Lettuce can be an annual or biennial and that it can appear in any hardiness zone ranging from 2 to 11. Unlike it’s cousin the Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), Tall Lettuce is native but in a funny reversal it has spread to Europe, Tropical Asia, Africa. But wait, there’s more, as Tall Lettuce has a milky latex sap just like Dandelions, and so does our store bought lettuce. I’m sure by now you are wondering, what does one do with it? Well if it’s not in a position to be out-competing your other plants and is not anywhere that it will be a problem it’s a good trap crop plant for keeping aphids off the stuff you intended to grow. Tall Lettuce can get up to seven feet tall including the flowers and it can do this by the month of May easily. Its flowers can support local pollinators and they are kind of pretty in a mini-dandelion sort of way. If you look at the photographs this is the stage that it is best to harvest as a leaf green as the leaves are tender and have the least amount of bitterness. <Alt Text 1 of 2>

Not only does this plant appear to have shown up by surprise but also it’s a foot tall already and has a bunch of Dandelion-esque leaves making you wonder what it is. The plant in question is commonly called Tall Lettuce, but it is also known as Canada Lettuce and Canada Wild Lettuce. Those common names seem to just be weird right? There’s no way this thing could actually be lettuce; it doesn’t even look like lettuce! Tall Lettuce’s scientific name is (Lactuca canadensis) and Lactuca is the genus name of all of the true lettuce plants just like the ones you get at the store. Tall Lettuce is actually the wild cousin of that head of flavorless Iceberg Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) in the produce aisle. How, the mighty have fallen to become a flavor free orb with barely any green color, but I digress. Lettuce is in the Aster family so it is related to Marigolds, Zinnias and Sunflowers and a few others you can think of. The USDA recognizes that Tall Lettuce can be an annual or biennial and that it can appear in any hardiness zone ranging from 2 to 11. Unlike it’s cousin the Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), Tall Lettuce is native but in a funny reversal it has spread to Europe, Tropical Asia, Africa. But wait, there’s more, as Tall Lettuce has a milky latex sap just like Dandelions, and so does our store bought lettuce. I’m sure by now you are wondering, what does one do with it? Well if it’s not in a position to be out-competing your other plants and is not anywhere that it will be a problem it’s a good trap crop plant for keeping aphids off the stuff you intended to grow. Tall Lettuce can get up to seven feet tall including the flowers and it can do this by the month of May easily. Its flowers can support local pollinators and they are kind of pretty in a mini-dandelion sort of way. If you look at the photographs this is the stage that it is best to harvest as a leaf green as the leaves are tender and have the least amount of bitterness. <Alt Text 1 of 2>

<Alt Text 2 of 2> Once a Tall Lettuce goes to produce flowers its flavor as a whole will head towards bitter land. You could conceivably feed it a decent nitrogen fertilizer and keep cutting off the flower buds and stalks to force it to produce soft foliage. Cutting and feeding a Tall Lettuce plant for foliage should be considered a temporary means to extend a wild harvest period as the high heat of summer will make these plants (if they emerged in spring) fall apart. As I noted earlier, you can eat the leaves of this plant and the flowers. Typically Tall lettuce can be eaten raw or cooked and is generally used like Escarole (Chichorium endiva) a relative in the Aster family and a form of Chicory. Now personally, I prefer to use the leaves of this plant about this time of the year in a sauté with garlic and Broccoli Rabe served with pork or chicken breasts and a side of either pasta or rice. Literally once cooked it blends seamlessly in with the other greens and no one would readily know the difference without me saying something. As a note for eating it raw in a salad, make sure to thoroughly wash the leaves as Aphids love this plant. For those who don’t know; Aphids are small soft-bodied insects that suck fluids out of whatever plant they attack. Aphids are usually green, but I’ve seen them be red, yellow, gray, almost black, and in one case on a petunia, purple-ish because it was feeding on the flower. So give the foliage a good wash and maybe put in the refrigerator for an hour then cut and use in a salad. The only real downside to Tall Lettuce is that it’s mainly a spring and early summer kind of plant, I never see it in fall but I do see its close relative Prickly Lettuce (L. serriola), which is less desirable because of the leaf spines. <Alt Text 2 of 2>

<Alt Text 2 of 2> Once a Tall Lettuce goes to produce flowers its flavor as a whole will head towards bitter land. You could conceivably feed it a decent nitrogen fertilizer and keep cutting off the flower buds and stalks to force it to produce soft foliage. Cutting and feeding a Tall Lettuce plant for foliage should be considered a temporary means to extend a wild harvest period as the high heat of summer will make these plants (if they emerged in spring) fall apart. As I noted earlier, you can eat the leaves of this plant and the flowers. Typically Tall lettuce can be eaten raw or cooked and is generally used like Escarole (Chichorium endiva) a relative in the Aster family and a form of Chicory. Now personally, I prefer to use the leaves of this plant about this time of the year in a sauté with garlic and Broccoli Rabe served with pork or chicken breasts and a side of either pasta or rice. Literally once cooked it blends seamlessly in with the other greens and no one would readily know the difference without me saying something. As a note for eating it raw in a salad, make sure to thoroughly wash the leaves as Aphids love this plant. For those who don’t know; Aphids are small soft-bodied insects that suck fluids out of whatever plant they attack. Aphids are usually green, but I’ve seen them be red, yellow, gray, almost black, and in one case on a petunia, purple-ish because it was feeding on the flower. So give the foliage a good wash and maybe put in the refrigerator for an hour then cut and use in a salad. The only real downside to Tall Lettuce is that it’s mainly a spring and early summer kind of plant, I never see it in fall but I do see its close relative Prickly Lettuce (L. serriola), which is less desirable because of the leaf spines. <Alt Text 2 of 2>

The Wild Harvest Digest: March 2025, #4

Good Morning Neighbors,

Today’s wild plant of the week is one that may have seemed to have appeared overnight from nothing in your gardens. <See Alt Text for more!> #TallLettuce #CanadaLettuce #WildForageFood

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