Italienischer - a spectacular lettuceI'm a big fan of Italienischer lettuce. It makes my list of best vegetables. It's a spectacular variety of lettuce that creats a rather large "blossom" of large leaves that looks similar to a spear tip with some jagged edges. The leaves are so large that a single serving salad could be made from a single leaf. The texture of this lettuce is crisp and the flavor is sweet. If you plan to grow this variety, plant one seedling in a 2 foot diameter area. You'll need the space. When mature this variety will completely fill up an area that you might normally set aside for a cabbage plant. 
Italienischer is cold hardy to below freezing if you give it some additional protection, and it's among the more bolt resistant of the lettuce varieties that I grow. Given the heat of a greenhouse, it will bolt, but other varieties start to bolt weeks ahead of this wonderful lettuce. Photo right shows the size of these enormous spike shaped leaves. I want to say that this type of lettuce defies categorization, but I'm certain someone has found a place for it. It's not a traditional loose leaf lettuce, it certainly isn't a butterhead lettuce, and it's not a romaine type either. It's best harvested one leaf at a time, so perhaps it's a leaf lettuce. The characteristic pattern of growth is that of a tightly bunched plant that "blossoms" out with large spiked leaves. It's hard to believe until you see it for yourself. Leaves from this lettuce variety would make a nice form of bedding for a party tray, but we like to tear them up for use in a salad. You'll like this variety because it's productive, sweet, crisp and tolerates heat quite well. Done with Italienischer, back to Growing Vegetables
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