Today's Nature post features Lettuce!

Lettuce, Lactuca Sativa, is a leafy vegetable within the Lactuca, or Lettuce, genus belonging to the Asteraceae family. This family of flowering plants is a wide spread group of over 32,000 species and includes relatives such as the sunflower and the daisy. Lettuce is an annual plant that is native to the Mediterranean area to Siberia. It was originally cultivated by the Egyptians primarily for oil made from it's seeds and was then grown from a weed into a plant consumed for it's leaves around 2680 BC. It then was spread to the Greeks and Romans before becoming cultivated all over the world today. Lettuce is a leafy, colorful plant that can grow between 6 and 12 inches tall as well as wide. It will grow from a main taproot with secondary roots branching off and is generally only allowed to live up to 130 days before harvesting. After that, Lettuce will begin to flower and will become bitter to the taste. After the edible stage, Lettuce will grow flowering stalks over 3 feet in height. Highly praised for it's culinary uses, Lettuce leaves can be eaten raw, cooked, or used as an ingredient in meals. Romans around 50 AD would cook the leaves in an oil-and-vinegar dressing while Post-Roman Europe used this to begin large meals with poached lettuce salads using a hot oil-and-vinegar mix. Lettuce is grown primarily for it's leaves, although some cultivars have been produced to harvest the stems or seeds. In China, health risks created a cultural avoidance of eating raw leaves and only cooked lettuce was served in meals. The nutritional value of Lettuce depends highly on it's cultivar. Darker green Lettuce such as Romaine will hold higher levels of nutrition such as Vitamins K and A and Beta-carotene.

Lettuca, also known as Garden Lettuce or Sleep Wort, is associated as being a feminine plant connected with the moon and water. It is strongly connected with love, divination, chastity, protection, and sleep. Eating lettuce is said to aid in remaining chaste as well as preventing seasickness. Rubbing Lettuce juice on your forehead or eating it's leaves will also help in letting one fall to sleep. Lettuce contains a mild narcotic from a liquid found in it's stem called Lactucarium. It is said that if you plant lettuce seeds in the form of the name of someone you love and they sprout well, that your love will also grow between the two of you. Ancient Egyptians believed that Lettuce was a symbol of sexual power. It is a plant considered sacred to the God Min, the God of reproduction, and was placed near his image as a form of worship. However, the Greeks believed that it was a plant that symbolized male impotency and would serve it during funerals. Lettuce appears in murals from Egyptian culture as well as many medieval writings. Herbalists would write of Lettuce as being a medicinal herb. American settlers claimed that the eating of Lettuce would prevent smallpox while other folk medicines would speak of it's ability to treat rheumatism, nervousness, coughs, pain, and even insanity.