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Confused on Lettuce Name

CraftyMarieCraftyMarie Posts: 13
in Fruit & veg

My daughter brought back some very sad lettuce seedlings from school which I've potted on.

I'm slightly confused on the name though. Is it Lollo Rosso or Lollo Rossa or something else. I keep seeing it online spelled in various ways - or are these slightly different in some way. Just like to clear up the conundrum really.

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    It's Italian for 'red leaved' (or more correctly 'red husk'.) Rossa is feminine and Rosso is masculine so depends on whether you think of your lettuces as male or female! image

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • CraftyMarieCraftyMarie Posts: 13

    Thank you, that's good to know. So it could be either.

    Hmm, even more of a conundrum. Would I prefer to eat a male or female variety image

  • ItalophileItalophile Posts: 1,731

    It's Lollo Rossa. As Bob says, Rossa is the feminine form of the adjective (red). It's probably feminine because lettuce, in Italian, is lattuga, a feminine noun, and adjectives take the gender form of the noun they're describing.

  • CraftyMarieCraftyMarie Posts: 13

    Thanks, Italophile, for clearing that up with the extra information. At least I can put the right spelling on my plant labels image

  • ItalophileItalophile Posts: 1,731

    A bit of extra (useless) trivia. Lettuce in Italy is rarely called lattuga even if it's its real name. It gets lumped under the noun insalata, the generic term for salad. Which is a feminine noun too.

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