Lactuca canadensis
Origin: Holyoke, Massachusetts
Improvement status: Cultivated wild material
Seeds per packet: ~100
Germination tested 12/25: 90%
Life cycle: Short-lived perennial or Biennial
From our seed source, the author, scholar, and perennial vegetable expert Eric Toensmeier: "Our best-tasting wild lettuce, native to the central and eastern US and Canada. Can be annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial, growing as a rosette until flowering, then growing 6-8’, setting seed, and usually dying. Leaves are edible, but the best part is when it begins to produce its flower shoot. When the shoot is 12-18” tall it is delicious (leaves and stem), tasting remarkably like romaine lettuce. If you always let some go to seed, it will come up here and there around your garden for many years to come. The small yellow flowers are valuable to pollinators, and hollow stems are good overwintering and nesting spots for insects. Ordinary soils are fine, sun to part shade. USDA zones 3-9."
Wounds on the plant produce a tan-colored milky sap which has been used medicinally against a variety of ailments (though often with little objective evidence to support such use) including pain, insomnia, digestion issues, spasms, and arthritis.
Eric's population originated with wild volunteers at his old mini-homestead in Holyoke, Massachusetts, made famous in his and Jonathan Bates' 2013 book Paradise Lot: Two Plant Geeks, One-Tenth of an Acre, and the Making of an Edible Garden Oasis in the City.
GROWING TIPS: Sow seeds in spring, with just a bit of soil or growing medium sprinkled on top. Best direct-sown, but can be started in flats too.
