Lactuca Species, Canada Lettuce, Tall Lettuce, Wild Lettuce

It is an interesting, common, native plant over much of North America. Looks fine in the meadow. It can be a weed in the wrong place, of ...Read Morecourse like any plant. I took photos at Blinky Lee Land Preserve in southeast Pennsylvania in mid-August 2015.

I've just recently noticed a very odd-looking plant in a part of my property that I do not garden in. This odd weed seemed to shoot up w...Read Moreithout warning and stumped every gardener I showed it to. I finally was able to identify it as Tall or Wild Lettuce. What is even more odd, I live near Ithaca, New York and to my knowledge, this species doesn't thrive this far north. And it does thrive, as it is close to eleven feet tall. It is a remarkable plant but I was afraid that it would most certianly be a harmful weed to have so I clipped it in a weak moment. I only finally identified it after the fact. I appreciate the vast amount of knowledge on this website, it was here that I finally ended the mystery.
I have mixed feelings about cutting it down but I won't lose any sleep over it either.
It'll remain a mystery as to how it even ended up here. I would assume it was via a bird.

Thanks!

The following information is from The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America by Francois Couplan Ph.D. (Note: This information a...Read Morepplies to all Wild Lettuces of the Lactuca genus.)

"Lettuce contains vitamins A, B1, B2, C, D, and E, minerals, a bitter principal, and various substances, including a very large proportion of water for cultivated specimens: up to 96% in certain "iceberg" types, notwithstanding the chemical residues found in commercially grown plants.

The plant is soothing, emollient, laxative, depurative, and refrigerant.

The latex of cultivated plants when they go to seed, or especially of wild lettuce (especially L. virosa - naturalized from Eurasia in California), yields a dark brown, very bitter substance after drying known as "lactucarium," which has antispasmodic, sedative, and hypnotic properties. It has been used medicinally like opium, the dried latex of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum, Papaveraceae), with good results in certain cases. Moreover, lactucarium has no toxicity. It has even been used as a substitute to cure opium addiction.

The juicy pith within the stems of flowering lettuce is delicious to eat raw after peeling the outer rind of the stem. Some varieties, known as "celtuce," are now grown specifically for this purpose in North America.

Garden lettuce has been cultivated since Antiquity.

The very young shoots and leaves, light green and tender, of the various species of wild lettuce are delicious raw in salads. Older leaves may be cooked in several waters to eliminate their bitterness.

The inflorescences are edible as well."

The following information is from Edible Wild Plants: Eastern / Central North America by Lee Allen Peterson.

"Use: Salad, cooked green, cooked vegetable. Although somewhat bitter, the young leaves can be added fresh to salads or boiled 10-15 minutes in 1 change of water and served with butter or vinegar. The cooked leaves still leave a slightly bitter aftertaste and are best mixed with other greens. The developing flowerheads, before the stems unfold and the flowers bloom, impart a unique bitter flavor when added to casseroles."

American Indians used plant tea as a mild sedative, nerve tonic and pain reliever. Milky latex from the stem was used on warts, pimples ...Read Morepoison ivy rash and other skin irritations.