Unknown plants invaded my lettuce boxes

[Michael Bird]

I have been planting a Mesclun Salad seed mix lately to supplement the greens that I purchase from my local grocery store for my Jordanian Greek tortoise. I don't have room to grow enough to keep her happy all the time but what I can grow cuts down on the food bills.

I went on vacation for a few weeks a while back so I harvested all of the lettuce that I had growing in my planter boxes since it wouldn't survive that long without attention. My brother took care of the tortoise but didn't have room for the plants as well.

When I got back, I noticed some new plants growing in the boxes. I'm attaching pictures of the entire plants as well as close up shots of the leaves/flowers in hopes that you can identify them. I'm not terribly concerned but I'm definitely interested to know what they might be since I don't know where they came from. And if they are edible then I'll just let Gracie "clean" them out of the planter boxes so I can plant new lettuce seeds.

I have absolutely no idea what the first plant might be. I've never seen anything like it.

The second plant looks like a giant version of dandelion leaves but they are far too big to be a dandelion and there is no flower stalk.

The third plant looks somewhat like one of the red lettuces in the seed mix but it is growing very tall, unlike any lettuce I have ever seen, and actually has flowers and what look like they might be seed pods at the very top.

Plant #1

Plant #2

Plant #3

 

[AnthonyC]

1 and 2 look like purslane, but I'm not 100% sure.

 

[Yvonne G]

I think #1 is purselane, #2 is dandelion and #3 is prickly lettuce.

 

[AnthonyC]

Ooops! I didn't see that the pics were numbered! Grrr... broke my own rule about reading carefully! Sorry

I think #1 is purselane, #2 is dandelion and #3 is prickly lettuce.

 

[Michael Bird]

Wow! Quick answers!

OK, now for a bit more brain picking if you don't mind...

I looked up Purselane (Portulaca oleracea) and the pictures look close enough that I think you're probably right. I found some info that says it is native to North Africa, India, and the Middle East. I definitely have to wonder how it managed to make it's way onto my porch in northern Utah. I walk around my neighborhood nearly every day and have not ever seen a plant like it anywhere. Wikipedia says that it is sometimes used in salad and stir-fry. Does that mean it's also edible for tortoises?

I definitely thought #2 looked like dandelion leaves, but these leaves are well over 12 inches long and the dandelions that normally grow here never get leaves longer than 3 or 4 inches. Is it definitely a dandelion or possibly a hawkbit or something else in the same family? They're all good tortoise food anyway, I'm just curious...

I also looked up prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola) and the pictures that I can find show flowers that are similar, but the leaves are completely different. Everything I can find says that prickly lettuce leaves are green and have large points along the edges like oak leaves. The leaves on this plant while somewhat jagged only have very small serrations and are very deep red (almost purple). I checked the seed list for the mix that I planted in the pot and the leaves look somewhat like Red Salad Bowl or Lollo Rossa (both in the mix) but those have always grown in bunched heads close to the soil and never straight up like this one so it might just be a 'mutant'.

 

[Yvonne G]

No, those weeds didn't come from your seed mixture. They're weeds. Blown in by the wind or dropped by birds. Purselane is rampant here in the U.S. and edible. The dandelion-like plant is also edible, and probably bigger than normal because of being in richer soil. The last one is red because its water-starved and too much sun. The last one might be prickly sow thistle and that's edible too.

 

[Michael Bird]

OK, thanks for the info. I'll let Gracie have a look at the plants and see if she likes them or not.

 

[Michael Bird]

As I expected, Gracie inhaled the dandelion leaves since that is her favorite food.

She didn't touch the leaves of the red plant at all, which really surprised me since she always eats the red lettuces first when I give her Spring Mix. I picked one of the yellow flowers from the red plant and put it down where she could get to it and she ate the flower but wouldn't eat the stem. I'll let her try that one again later since she might have been distracted by the dandelion.

She took one bite of the purselane and immediately spit it out and wouldn't go anywhere near the plant again, so I guess that one is a reject...

 

[redbeef]

I bought a mesclun mix and one of the small red leafed lettuces looked like #3 when the weather got warm and it bolted: it's some type of cultivated leaf lettuce...maybe the leaves will look slightly familiar to something harvested from the mix in cooler weather?

I'd agree w/everyone else on here that 1 is definitely purselane and 2 is a dandelion