No single commodity better exemplifies this than salad greens. Iceberg, romaine, red leaf, bibb, Boston, buttercrunch, butterhead, and oakleaf are all varieties of a single species: Lactuca sativa.
On the flip side, a single package of mesclun – a term that simply means 'mixed' – may contain over a dozen species. My 'Johnny's Selected Seed' calatog this year lists 17 different species of salad greens in addition to L. sativa. And that's not counting spinach and chard varieties or microgreens.
The variation in cultivars of L. sativa has something to do with its long history of cultivation. Pictures of lettuce appear on the tomb of Senusret I, who ruled Egypt in 20th centruy BC. Cultivation of L. sativa certainly goes back longer than that.
Botanically, it's a member of the Asteraceae – or daisy – family. The genus name (lactuca) derives from the Latin word for milk, a refence to the plant's whitish sap. In the Middle Ages, lettuce sap was sometime added to beer as a bitter principle. Some sources cite its medicinal qualities. Others cite it as highly inebriating. Either way, it must do something good, because it's got to be a pain in the neck to collect any quantity.
In China, the stems and leaves are sometime served as a cooked vegetable – often steamed with oyster sauce. But most lettuce is cultivated and eaten as a fresh, leaf vegetable. That's how I usually eat. For my species today, I just through some red leaf lettuce in a salad.
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