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godless

wild lettuce ID help please

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the wiki description (I know) of L. serriola says a spineless stem, and there are spines clearly visible in the second lot of pics I put up.

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Looks like young Serriola, sometimes they are absent of spines other times they are covered (aka prickly lettuce), I think age might have something to do with this. Both Serriola and Virosa have simular effects and are very edible but are quite bitter, I found Virosa was just easier to milk because it didn't have spines but overall id say they are on par with each other in terms of strength - you can make a mild tea out of fresh leaves but as far as using it for enjoyment id recommend investing the time milking the latex from the stems, scoring horizontal lines works or if you have enough of them just cut segments of the top off and work your way down.

 

It does require a bit of time and effort to get a decent amount, I used to collect it over a couple of weeks, but I really enjoyed the whole process. Makes it all the more rewarding to sit back and enjoy it later ....Apparently it has a nice synergy with poppy latex :wink:

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I'm growing with a view to making a tincture.

 

I found this recipe when I was searching:

 

Wild Lettuce; Lactuca Virosa Preparation

 Here is a recipe for making a strong Lactuca, Wild Lettuce, tincture. It is prepared differently than a more traditional way to increase the effects of it’s sedative anodyne qualities. This plant is also known as Lettuce Opium or Wild Opium.

With preparing this form of Lactuca; Wild Lettuce tincture, it is important to have all aspects and equipment prepared beforehand such as knowing where there is a stand of Lactuca growing, having your equipment ready, and knowing that you have enough time during the days it takes to make it, which aren’t much, less than 2 hours per day for about 5 days. Read on.

Basically, I use this form of preparation to condense the latex in the plant which I assume contains most of its nervine qualities. Otherwise one ends up with a weak medicine due to all the ‘roughage’ that is a part of these stately plants. The goal is to maximize the concentration of latex. This is a bit of a challenge with Wild Lettuce, Lactuca, as there is a lot of plant matter to work around to get the latex without the mainly inert cellulose and other plant matter.

 

wild_lettuce,Lactuca_Virosa_botanical Always you make sure you identify the plant correctly before picking. Picture shows a botanical of Wild Lettuce

Tools needed for making Wild Lettuce Tincture

1.Pruners-to cut plants

2.Tincture press

3.Ethanol-95%

4.Blender- a good sturdy one

5.Stove

6.Stainless steel pot with a lid

 

Preparation of Wild Lettuce Tincture

1.Find a stand of Wild Lettuce plants. I have used a number of species and they all seem useful, though some more careful observations of species may help figure this out. I have not used any close relatives that also yield latex, such as Sonchus.

2.The best time to make this tincture is when the plant is at its maximum latex yield, which seems to be around when it is just going to flower. It is easy to see the amount of latex, remove a leaf and the white milky latex should flow freely.

3.While all parts of Wild Lettuce contain this latex, I just make the medicine from the above ground parts, as it is just easier to not have to wash and cut up the roots, though I may be missing something here, as the roots do exude a fair bit of the latex.

4.Cut a few Wild Lettuce stalks

5.Bring them right away to where you will be processing them into tincture.

6.Cut them up into blender-size pieces

Lactuca_Virosa_Wild_Lettuce_latex Picture shows the latex from the Wild Lettuce plant

7.Put them in the blender, and cover with ethanol

8.Blend

9.Add as much ethanol and material as you can to get a big wad of blenderized Wild Lettuce stem, saturated in ethanol

10.Let sit overnight (or longer)

11.Press tincture in tincture press

12.Cut more Wild Lettuce

13.Cut into blender-size pieces

14.Put in blender, add the menstruum that you recently pressed

15.Add this into the blender, along with enough 95% ethanol to cover and blend.

16.Let sit overnight.

17.Follow this process for a few days, cut, add menstruum from previously pressed tincture, blend, and add enough ethanol to get the juice out. And then press this for the next batch.

18.After a few days of this you should have a fair bit of fluid (menstruum)

19.Put this in a stainless steel pot with a lid on it

20.Bring to a high simmer

21.Evaporate and reduce the fluid so it gets more black and ‘tar-like’

22.This is your medicine

23.Be aware, that as you simmer, ethanol evaporates at a lower temperature than water, so make sure there is enough ethanol in your final product to keep it stable

24.Enjoy and let me know the results.

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are both lactuca serriola and Lactuca virosa edible? do they have similar properties?

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The ones I know have very spiney stems around the base, just like yours. Give it a blast and see how it goes.

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The description of Lactuca serriola in Flora of the Perth Region  describes it as "glabrous or basally setose" - i.e. bristly.

To date L. virosa has only been recorded from MIldura, whereas L. serriola is found right across the continent.

http://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?taxa=Lactuca+virosa#tab_recordsView

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On ‎11‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 9:47 PM, Halcyon Daze said:

The ones I know have very spiney stems around the base, just like yours. Give it a blast and see how it goes.

how much you reckon? ive got a lil ball about the size of a match head..

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I don't know about using lil balls or whatever, I've only heard to use a bunch of fresh leaves to make a relaxing tea.

 

If you try to concentrate the sap like that you might just end up feeling sick/ semi-poisoned.

 

Be careful what you do, no-one is recommending you to become a guinea pig.

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i tried the tea the other night, meh. workin through the ball in very small increments

 

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On ‎11‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 9:47 PM, Halcyon Daze said:

The ones I know have very spiney stems around the base, just like yours. Give it a blast and see how it goes.

sounds like your saying I be a guinea pig lol

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I don't take anyones word as gospel, I feel im trying it in sensible amounts

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Yeah sorry, I meant give the tea a blast, to see if your plant is active or even worth making a tea out of. I know nothing about concentrated resins etc.

 

I got a bunch of plants coming up down the back right now, but I'm hesitant to use it due to the tropane alkaloid hyoscyamine.

 

Concentrated tropanes can be a bit iffy IMO.

Edited by Halcyon Daze

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well im still alive, nothing at all from the ball.

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^ some constipation AT LEAST?

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LOL musta found some dud plants there, godless.

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On ‎15‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 8:18 PM, Halcyon Daze said:

LOL musta found some dud plants there, godless.

i did try the tea aswell but nothing supersonic. theyre either duds or theyre too young. there just clumps pretty  much at  ground level at the moment, plenty of sap though even just when ripping leaves off

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Godless, the alkaloids are at their highest when the plant is in flower, that's when I would collect the lactucarium when I was growing them, also if you make a tea you need a lot of fresh leaves and try not to boil them too hot. Personally, I preferred smoking globs of latex in a glass pipe, doesn't last very long but as I said if you mix it with a little bit of poppy sap they work well together.

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I used a fair bit of material for the tea,  easily 6 heaped teaspoons worth. probably more. ill hold off now until they flower and give it another go. I just know my dads gunna come up and say why the fuck haven't you mowed you lazy cunt.

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I see it now, was the one where I was talking about my dad, I swear it wasn't there this morning, maybe im just tripin, thought maybe the swearing got it deleted but I thought that would be a bit odd.

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