Weed ID... it is "prickly", but...

[MamaSheepdog]

Is it the Prickly Lettuce I keep hearing about?

These showed up last year for the first time, and I pulled them all before seeing any flowers. The spines are pretty pliable. When I broke off the leaf, the plant exuded a white sap.

 

[Secuono]

...What does it look like small and new from the ground? Kinda looks like what I feed my critters. No idea what it is, but no complaints from anyone.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I've never noticed them when they are really tiny, but they look pretty much the same, except the leaves aren't as dark. I'll take a pic of one of the smallest ones I can find and post that.

 

[MaggieJ]

Yes, that is prickly lettuce. Notice the row of prickles on the back of the centre vein of the leaf. Notice too how it turns its leaves to follow the sun. Great rabbit food!

 

[ladysown]

prickly lettuce! Say woot woot! bunny like it a whole ton!

help it to self seed and you can take clippings from it all summer. by end of August leave it be so it can seed itself (only need to leave one plant for that).

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Woot woot! Thanks MaggieJ and ladysown! I am so excited! Guess what's on the bunny menu tonight?

I don't have a lot of them- maybe 1-2 dozen, but it is a start. When I harvest from the larger ones, should I just cut them back by about a third or is it better to just pick some leaves?

I have some younger ones growing in the gravel where we park our cars (WHAT were they thinking???), so I will try to transplant those. I'll need to soak the ground first as it is rock hard there. Hopefully I can get it wet enough to get them out safely.

 

[MaggieJ]

Prickly lettuce is resilient. I just cut it to the ground and it soon comes back. Late in the season let it go to seed, but early on you can be fairly ruthless with it.

 

[themangoavenger]

I may have just eradicated that from my yard on account of it being a thorny nuisance.

I'll have to check in the mourning.

 

[ladysown]

ah...but with care it might come back. or go find some seed heads and put it in a particular area of your garden.

 

[themangoavenger]

I found some sickly looking prickly lettuce I'd overlooked because the area was too overgrown with other weeds. :/ Definitely going to save some seeds to plant it where I want it.

I also found some lettuce had grown from the dirt I'd thrown out from a failed attempt to grow it in my basement over the winter. Clearly when it said "It's not you, it's me" it was lieing. It was me.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I found some sickly looking prickly lettuce I'd overlooked because the area was too overgrown with other weeds.

I also found some lettuce had grown from the dirt I'd thrown out from a failed attempt to grow it in my basement over the winter.

I was weeding a flowerbed yesterday, and pulled up a smallish prickly lettuce- it's leaves were about 4"-5" and the tap root was about 3"-4", so the smaller ones should be pretty easy to transplant.

Good luck with your lettuce!<br /><br />__________ Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:12 pm __________<br /><br />My Prickly Lettuce started to flower the other day, and I have started collecting the seeds! I noticed that you need to be fast- they don't stay on the flower head long.

So- can I plant any now, or do they only germinate in the spring?

 

[ladysown]

i just let the wind blow them wherever, wait for them to come up (start coming up in the fall) and then I transplant them. A highly resilient plant.

 

[hoodat]

Prickly lettuce is closely related to dandelion and has the same high nutritional value. I often wonder how rabbits can eat them prickles and all but it doesn't seem to bother them.
I've had great luck with the French giant dandelion I ran accross growing wild, probably escaped from someones garden. It has established itself all over my garden. I don't have to plant it anymore; it does that by itself.