WILD LETTUCE
FLOWER AND SEED HEADS
PURPLE LOOSTRIFE
LAST NIGHTMonday, 8:00 AM. 69 degrees, wind WSW, light. The sky is a cloudless cobalt blue but the barometer predicts rain, which we need.
The purple loostrife, Lythrum salicaria, is an escaped garden plant that everyone now recognizes as a serious threat to native wetlands. Fortunately, significant control of this pest is being achieved through the release of a beetle that eats the plant.
Wild lettuce, the genus Lactuca, of which there are about fifty species worldwide, exudes a milky latex when a leaf is pulled from the stem. Do the same with garden leaf lettuce and you will recognize its lineage.
Some garden plants become weeds, but all useful plants originated in the wild. It is a continuing dialog between man and nature.
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