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Branch Lettuce is not actually a lettuce. It's a leafy perennial plant that is harvested from the wild.
It grows in shady, damp places, particularly along the banks of streams and ponds, and on damp rock faces where trickling water runs. It grows up to 3 feet (1 metre) high, and blossoms with small white flowers in the spring. It has fuzzy, toothy-edged leaves 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) long and 1 to 2 inches (2 1/2 to 5 cm) wide. The leaves are harvested in the early spring.
You you wash the fuzz off the leaves.
Branch Lettuce can be eaten raw, or can be used as a pot herb. In the American Appalachians, it is often used in a wilted salad with hot bacon grease poured over it.
There are several varieties, including Saxifraga micranthidifolia, Saxifraga virginiensis, and Saxifraga pensylvanica.
Nutrition
In gathering it, the same caution that applies to watercress -- ensuring that the water supply it's growing in or near is unpolluted by natural or human causes, free of liver-fluke, etc -- applies.
Also called:  Bear Lettuce
Saxifrage
Wild Lettuce
See Also
Kilt Lettuce
Other entries for Leafy Vegetables
Branch Lettuce, Dandelion, Endive, Frisée, Greens, Lamb's Quarters, Lettuce, Malabar Spinach, Mesclun Mix, Mizuna, New Zealand Spinach, Potherbs, Rocket, Strawberry Spinach
Other entries for Vegetables
Agave, Artichokes, Asparagus, Brassica Family, Canned Vegetables, Cardoons, Celery, Corn, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Frozen Vegetables, Garlic, Gourds, Herbed Vinegars, Horseradish Tree, Hoshi Shiitake, Lotus, Mixed Vegetables, Mushrooms, Pak Wan, Peas, Peppers, Root Vegetables, Sago Palm, Seaweed, Spinach, Sprouts, Squash, Tomatoes, Viscous Vegetables
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