Description

Latin name: Lactuca virosa
Also know as: wild lettuce, bitter lettuce, laitue vireuse, opium lettuce, poisonous lettuce, tall lettuce, great lettuce or rakutu-karyumu-so.

Lactuca virosa – Wild Lettuce

Lactuca virosa is a plant in the Lactuca (lettuce) genus, often ingested for its mild analgesic and sedative effects. Lactuca virosa is biennial, similar to prickly lettuce Lactuca serriola but taller – it can grow to 200 cm. It is also stouter, the stem and leaves are more purple flushed, and the leaves are less divided, but more spreading, similarly to Mycelis muralis but showing more than 5 florets.

In the northern hemisphere, it flowers from July until September.

About Wild Lettuce

Lactuca virosa was used in the 19th century by physicians when opium could not be obtained. It was studied extensively by the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1911. They discovered two chemicals responsible for the properties of L. virosa; lactucopicrin and lactucin. In the United States, the plant experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1970s. Today the plant is un-scheduled by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), meaning it is legal to grow, purchase, and own without prescription or license.

“Wild Salad” has long been known in the world of “natural remedies” or “alternative treatments”. It is often referred to as the poor man’s opium.

Additional information