Today we continued learning about plants in the Asteraceae family. A family with over 32,000 species. The five we covered today are.
- Echinacea purpurea (Purple coneflower)
- Jacobaea maritima (Dusty Miller)
- Coreopsis tinctoria (Plains Coreopsis)
- Dahlia sylvia (dahlia pinnata var sylvia)
- Lactuca sativa (loose leaf lettuce)
The botanical name for lettuce is “lactuca sativa”. Derived from latin “lac” means “milk” referring to the milky sap found in members of the lacuna genus and “satus” means planted” referring to its cultivation. Lactuca sativa could be transliterated to mean, Cultivated Milk plant. There are different types, each with its own unique characteristics. Three variations of lactuca sativa you should be familiar with are.
- Capitata, derived from the latin word “caput” meaning head. This type of lettuce has crisp leaves compact together tightly forming a head.
- Crispa, derived from the latin word “crispus” meaning “curled” This type of lettuce has curly and crinkly leaves that are loosely arranged
- Longifolia, derived from latin from the Latin words “longus” meaning “long” and “folium” meaning “leaf” This type of lettuce typically have elongated and narrower leafs that stand upright.
Most of us eat some form of lettuce everyday but do we know the names of the greens we eat? Familiarize yourself with these cultivars of Lactuca Sativa. As we will be covering them more in future lessons. Try buying a mixed bag of greens and see if you can identify them by their leaf.
- Butter Lettuce
- Salad bowl
- Little gem
- Batavia
- Crisphead
- Bibb
- Oak Leaf
- Loose Leaf
- Green leaf
- Romain