Mountain lettuce

Mountain lettuce

(save famine materia medica)

[synonym] wild vegetable (flora of Guangzhou), native lettuce (cultivated plant list of Zhongshan Botanical Garden), duck food (northeast plant key), mustard, bitter vegetable (Chinese medicine plant Atlas), wild lettuce (flora of Hangzhou), donkey dry grain, bitter horse vegetable, wild tobacco (Henan Chinese herbal medicine manual).

[source] it is the whole plant of Lactuca sativa.

[plant morphology] Lactuca sativa

Herbs annual or biennial. Stem erect, 80-150 cm high, pilose, upper branched. Leaves alternate, long elliptic lanceolate, 10-30 cm long, 1.5-5 cm wide, undivided, or margin dentate or feathery; upper green, lower white green, leaf margin slightly dark purple; sessile, base clasping; upper leaves of stem long lanceolate. The inflorescence is terminal, arranged in panicle; the lower part of involucre is enlarged, bracts are arranged in many rows, in imbricate arrangement; glossy flower is light yellow, opening in the middle of the day, closing in the evening; stamen is 5; ovary is inferior, style is slender, stigma is 2-lobed. Achenes ovate and flat, black, beak short, beak with a layer of white hairs. The flowering period is from August to September. The fruit period is from September to October.

It grows in luebian and wilderness, and is distributed in the north and South provinces of China.

The root of this plant (bailongtou) is also used for medicine. Please refer to the special section for details.

[collection] harvest in spring.

[nature and taste] saving famine materia medica: "the taste is slightly bitter. "

[functions and indications] "Chinese medicine and plant illustrated book": "decocting stems and leaves can relieve fever; applying powder can remove warts. "