Lettuce Tree

This spring I planted lettuce to fill in the holes in my herb bed.  If you recall, I didn't get most of my herbs planted until this spring and it takes a while for them to spread and grow enough to fill in the spaces between them.

One of the varieties that I planted was a new one (for me) called Tango.  It turned out to be a very good variety.  It was tender and frilly and made an excellent addition to my spring salad mix because it added an interesting texture.  It had fewer insect problems and was slower to bolt when hot weather came than the other lettuces that I grew.

Here's a picture of what it looked like earlier in the year.

The other day I came across this strange looking plant in the herb bed.

It looks like a small Christmas tree!  But, this is one of the Tango lettuce plants that is bolting (i.e. getting ready to flower and make seed).  I thought it was just too cute.  I'm hoping to save some of the seed and plant a lot more of this kind of lettuce next year.