Lettuce
Lactuca sativa · Daisy family
Plant portrait
A rosette of leaves that may stay open or form a heart. Lettuce varieties offer different leaf textures and colours.
Harvested part
The leaves or heart.
What to watch for
Watch new leaves appear and, in hearting varieties, a heart form. A stem stretching towards flowering signals bolting; leaves can then become bitter.
Growth stages of the lettuce
Plotilo illustrates the lettuce in 5 stages in 3D: seed, small sprout, young plant, growing and harvest. The models show typical shapes; they do not predict how long growth takes.
- Seed
Starting from a seed. It is shown on the surface to make it visible in this illustration.
- Small sprout
A short first stem and its first small leaves emerge.
- Young plant
The young plant carries more leaves and starts to take its own shape.
- Growing
Leaves and stems develop. Their shape depends on the species.
- Harvest
An illustration of the harvested part. Roots are made visible for clarity; this image does not confirm actual maturity.
Same botanical family
Same botanical family as the lettuce (the daisy family): the globe artichoke, the greater burdock, the cardoon, the chicory, the paracress, the Witloof chicory and 4 more plants from the catalogue. Gardeners usually avoid growing the same family in the same spot several years in a row: that is the idea behind crop rotation.
- Globe artichoke Cynara cardunculus Scolymus Group
- Greater burdock Arctium lappa
- Cardoon Cynara cardunculus
- Chicory Cichorium endivia
- Paracress Acmella oleracea
- Witloof chicory Cichorium intybus Witloof Group
- Yacon Smallanthus sonchifolius
- Salsify Tragopogon porrifolius
- Scorzonera Scorzonera hispanica
- Jerusalem artichoke Helianthus tuberosus