Lactuca oblongifolia

Native American Name The Pawnee's called this plant "Wahaba-hthia" means blue lettuce, there was no other name for this plant.

Description
The plant looks like blue or purplish-blue, ligulate corolla tube about 6mm long, 9 to 10mm long and no disk florets. The plant is also perennial and more flower type plant the leaves or like basal blades lance liner to (8-20cm long, 1-3cm wide). The date it blooms is between June and September late summer though.

Location or Habitat
Grows throughout Nebraska most common in the western one-half of the state. It habitats along roadsides, stream banks, and cultivated fields abundant moist soils than dry soils. You could find the plant on our reservation mostly by the pow-wow grounds or ditches.

Uses
Both Europeans and Native Americans used this plant in the treatment of diarrhea in children hemorrhoids have been treated by applying a moist. The plant is rich in a milky sap, containing lactucarlum, which is used in medicine for its mildly pain-relieving, digestive, hypnotic, narcotic and sedative properties. The plant today is still used for pain-relieving and warts but it causes drowsiness, excess causes restlessness, and overdose can cause death through cardiac paralysis. There is a recipe that you can use the stems for chewing gum so the stems you can chew them but there wouldn't be any flavor to it so I would use a sweet flavor just to mix with it.

 By Anthony Cook

This Page was last update: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 1:35:19 PM
This page was originally posted: 11/21/07; 10:14:08 AM.
Copyright 2008 Plants of the Omaha Indian Reservation

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