An amount of 5.7 million euro is going to be spent doing research on 500 types of lettuce. The goal is to come with new kinds of lettuce. This project is called… LettuceKnow (yup, in English – in Dutch, lettuce is ‘sla’), which will be subsidised to the tune of 4 million euro, while a company that provides seeds will shell out 1.7 million euro.

“With this research, we want to find out how lettuce grows exactly and how we can ensure that its resilience against pathogens and climate conditions can be improved,” explains Professor Guido van den Ackerveken from Utrecht University. “Maize [corn] and tomatoes have been properly researched and new types have been created. Now it’s lettuce’s turn,” he adds.

Puns aside, the lettuce shown here, Valerianella olitoria aka corn salad, is one of my favourites, which I had never seen before moving to Europe.

(Link: rtvutrecht.nl, Photo of Valerianella olitoria lettuce by Rasbak, some rights reserved)