IT'S WILD, ITS PRICKLY, ITS LETTUCE

It's wild prickly lettuce, but not a lettuce like you'd buy
in the supermarket; it's a weed (=an unwanted plant)
that can be found thruout most of the US. It wouldn't
be particularly noticeable except that it is taller than
most of the plants around it. And in this rainy Summer
it looks like the Beanstalk of 'Jack and the _'

My plant book says that it can grow up to 10 feet tall
and in my yard there are three of them at least that
tall. 10 feet---that's as tall as a one-storey building.
Apparently they are edible as young leaves; they're
of the same genus as commercial lettuce (lactuca).

But i'm not going to eat mine; i'm going to have the
tallest one bronzed, so i can remember how power-
ful Mother Nature is---just add water.