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Prickly Lettuce

Scientific Names


• Lactuca scariola L.
• Lactuca virosa L.
• Composite family

Common Names

Wild lettuce
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Parts Usually Used

Leaves, sap
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Annual or biennial; 2-7 feet tall.  Leaves oblong to lance-shaped or dandelion-like but prickly; margins with weak spines.  Flowers yellow, dandelion-like.  July to October.
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Where Found

Waste places in the United States.  Originally from Europe.
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Medicinal Properties

Hypnotic, sedative, lowers blood sugar levels
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Uses

Native Americans used leaf tea to stimulate milk flow; diuretic.  Also used to combat insomnia.  Lowers blood sugar levels.  Culpeper says he knows no use for the lettuce root.
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Warning

Do not drive or operate machinery, may cause drowsiness.

Excessive doses may cause insomnia or increased sexual drive.

May cause dermatitis or internal poisoning.
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Bibliography

The Herb Book, by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974.

Back to Eden, by Jethro Kloss; Back to Eden Publishing Co., Loma Linda, CA 92354, Original copyright 1939, revised edition 1994

How Indians Use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine & Crafts, by Frances Densmore, Dover Publications, Inc., 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, first printed by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, in 1928, this Dover edition 1974

Culpeper's Complete Herbal & English Physician, by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814)

The Complete Medicinal Herbal, by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993

Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants, by Steven Foster and James A. Duke., Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000

Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, Victoria Neufeldt, Editor in Chief, New World Dictionaries: A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023, 1984

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