Last year, we grew grand rapids lettuce (Lactuca sativa) at my school’s community garden and I saved seeds from them after they bloomed. We planted those this spring. Out of a few hundred plants, a few of them look a bit different - they have the compact growth form and large leaf size of grand rapids lettuce I got them from, but the leaf shape resembles the wild prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola) growing nearby. The leaves are less ruffled and the midrib has spines on the bottom. the flavor and leaf color are somewhere in between the two. So I guess some L. serriola pollen got into those flowers and it resulted in a hybrid! I heard about this happening on the landrace gardening course, and it’s pretty cool to see in person.
These hybrids do much better in my dry climate than the other varieties I’m growing, probably a result of the wild lettuce genes and hybrid vigor. I’ll be saving seeds from these plants, hopefully they cross with the new varieties I added this year and eventually I’ll have a population that’s both hardy and delicious!
