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| Country diary: prickly or bitter, wild lettuce is thriving | Country diary: prickly or bitter, wild lettuce is thriving |
| (3 months later) | |
| Woodwalton Fen, Cambridgeshire One magnificent specimen is a metre-wide rosette of oar-shaped leaves | |
| Matt Shardlow | |
| Fri 27 Oct 2017 05.30 BST | |
| Last modified on Mon 27 Nov 2017 14.46 GMT | |
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| Storm Brian has eased, but the gusts still rustle the sallow, alder and willow leaves and sway the reeds. The firmament transforms rapidly from broken ashen blankets to a solid leaden layer and then a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. We strike south through a wooded area of the fen, towards the low sun glittering through the trees. | Storm Brian has eased, but the gusts still rustle the sallow, alder and willow leaves and sway the reeds. The firmament transforms rapidly from broken ashen blankets to a solid leaden layer and then a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. We strike south through a wooded area of the fen, towards the low sun glittering through the trees. |
| A fallen birch trunk hosts many Fomes fomentarius, a heavy-duty bracket fungus known as the hoof fungus. On the tree’s now vertical root-plate wild lettuce plants grow. | A fallen birch trunk hosts many Fomes fomentarius, a heavy-duty bracket fungus known as the hoof fungus. On the tree’s now vertical root-plate wild lettuce plants grow. |
| I have noted before the incredible vigour of plants growing in Woodwalton’s damp, peaty, soils. The rosettes and tall contorted flowering heads of these biennials are a case in point. One lettuce is particularly magnificent, a metre-wide shining green rosette of oar-shaped leaves. | I have noted before the incredible vigour of plants growing in Woodwalton’s damp, peaty, soils. The rosettes and tall contorted flowering heads of these biennials are a case in point. One lettuce is particularly magnificent, a metre-wide shining green rosette of oar-shaped leaves. |
| There are four species of Lactuca growing in the wild in Britain; they all like disturbed ground. Most distinctive is the rare blue lettuce, L tatarica, a casual that persists on a handful of coastal sites. Its flowers are blue; those of the three native species are yellow. | There are four species of Lactuca growing in the wild in Britain; they all like disturbed ground. Most distinctive is the rare blue lettuce, L tatarica, a casual that persists on a handful of coastal sites. Its flowers are blue; those of the three native species are yellow. |
| Bitter lettuce, L virosa, and prickly lettuce, L serriola, both grow up to 2.4 metres and are variable in form, sometimes having dandelion-shaped leaves but often sporting untoothed, wavy-edged, leaves. | Bitter lettuce, L virosa, and prickly lettuce, L serriola, both grow up to 2.4 metres and are variable in form, sometimes having dandelion-shaped leaves but often sporting untoothed, wavy-edged, leaves. |
| Bitter lettuce has purplish stems and a pyramid of flowers, but the stems of these Woodwalton plants are green and they have a less structured flower head, showing them to be prickly lettuce. | Bitter lettuce has purplish stems and a pyramid of flowers, but the stems of these Woodwalton plants are green and they have a less structured flower head, showing them to be prickly lettuce. |
| Both these plants have done well in recent decades, thriving and spreading along disturbed roadsides. The prickly lettuce has triumphed in another way. It has been cultivated for about 5,000 years, probably originally for its soporific qualities and seed oil. Over the millennia the cultivated form has lost all its spines, almost all its white latex sap and much of its bitterness, to become the abundant garden lettuce, L sativa. | Both these plants have done well in recent decades, thriving and spreading along disturbed roadsides. The prickly lettuce has triumphed in another way. It has been cultivated for about 5,000 years, probably originally for its soporific qualities and seed oil. Over the millennia the cultivated form has lost all its spines, almost all its white latex sap and much of its bitterness, to become the abundant garden lettuce, L sativa. |
| L saligna, or least lettuce, has not fared so well; its anaemically toothed basal leaves and sword-like upper leaves haven’t been seen in the Cambridgeshire fens since 1951, and it now only survives on three coastal sites, one each in Kent, Sussex and Essex. | L saligna, or least lettuce, has not fared so well; its anaemically toothed basal leaves and sword-like upper leaves haven’t been seen in the Cambridgeshire fens since 1951, and it now only survives on three coastal sites, one each in Kent, Sussex and Essex. |
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