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The Lettuce Tree

by Gyanvitaranam

   An ornamental tree for your garden and a nutritious leafy vegetable for your kitchen. This dual purpose plant is the lettuce tree often found in homesteads. The tender leaves of lettuce tree taste almost like lettuce, the popular leafy vegetable.

   Often growing in homesteads, waysides, parks and museum compounds as an ornamental tree with its pleasing pale green to light yellow coloured leaves, the edible value is not known to most. Colloquially dubbed as Souhruda cheera/samadhana cheera or pressure cheera, the tender leaves of the tree make an excellent nutritious and delicious vegetable. It has medicinal properties too.

  This small sized evergreen tree attaining a height of up to 10 m is native to Andaman Islands. Scientifically known as Pisonia alba, the tree belongs to nyctaginaceae family, the family of bougainvilleas. The plant is named after Dutch physician and naturalist William Piso.The flowers are inconspicuous and the....

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