Cutting lettuce (var. acephala Alef., syn. var. secalina Alef., syn. var. crispa L.) (Gathering lettuce, Loose-leaf, Picking lettuce, Schnittsalat, Laitue à couper)

Non-heading type harvested as whole, open rosettes, occasionally as separate leaves, eaten raw. Cutting lettuces have been very popular in the U.S., Italy, France, the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic (DeVries 1997). This morphotype is extremely heterogeneous. Cultivars may have entire, curled or fringed leaves, from non-lobed to deeply incised margins. The leaves are elongated or broad, having various shades of green, and various patterns and intensities of anthocyanin pigmentation. The Greeks and Romans cultivated cutting lettuces. Boukema et al. (1990) stated that CGN genebank landraces of this type came from Turkey and Greece.