Hi all, I have about 20 of these plants growing in my garden. They are about a foot and a half tall now and have been at it for about 3 months. Looks like some kind of lettuce, but now they are developing these flower (?) pods. Does anyone know what this is? Cordon
Looks like Lactuca...but it could also be a Sonchus. Tell us about whether there are stiff prickles present on the prominent midrib of the lower leaf surface. This is a determinant ID feature between these two types of weeds.
foco:
The Beginner Gardening forum is a great place with very helpful people, like ecrane. There is an equally good place with even more folks that crave questions like yours; this is the Plant Identification forum. See here:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/plantid/all/
While I think I've narrowed the ID of your plant to these two, the others may have more IDeas. You should post your picture there as well (and rotate it if you can).
I am sure this is breadseed poppy. Beautiful but poisonous. Not lettuce. do not eat the plant. The seeds however are the ones used in baking. Enjoy the beautiful flower show to come. Papaver somniferum is the latin. Despite my confidence, you wouldn't want to use this ID as a go ahead on the edibility of the seeds. Have fun. These are easy to propagate by letting the seeds pods mature are pouring the seeds out the top. They will over winter and bloom in spring.
It has no prickyliness to it at all. I will have to investigate further when I get home from class today! Thank you all! Cordon
See? Help all around.
I rescind my ID in favor of wonderearth's. Here's a picture from PlantFiles:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/40541/
