Lactuca sativa seed | Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce

LATIN NAME: Lactuca sativa COMMON NAME: Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce

Botanical Profile

Black Seeded Simpson is a heirloom loose-leaf lettuce variety dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, growing as a fast, non-heading lettuce with tender, ruffled, light green leaves that can be harvested individually while the plant continues producing new growth from the centre. Its small black seeds, which give the variety its name, distinguish it visually from the pale or tan seeds typical of many other lettuce cultivars.

Science & Conservation

As one of the oldest continuously grown lettuce varieties in American horticulture, Black Seeded Simpson has become a benchmark reference cultivar in heirloom vegetable seed-saving education, valued for its genetic stability as an open-pollinated variety maintained essentially unchanged for well over a century and a half. Its notably fast germination and reliable performance across a range of conditions have also made it a frequently recommended teaching variety in school and beginner gardening programmes.

Landscape & Practical Uses

Black Seeded Simpson’s tender, mild-flavoured leaves make an excellent everyday salad green, and its loose-leaf, cut-and-come-again growth habit means a single planting can provide repeated harvests over several weeks rather than a single one-time cutting. Its long history and reliable performance have made it one of the most widely recommended lettuce varieties for beginning vegetable gardeners.

Growing From Seed

Sow the seed directly into a loose, well-drained mix at a shallow depth, keeping it consistently moist, since this variety germinates quickly and reliably even for inexperienced gardeners. Cool weather and full sun to light shade suit this crop well, and successive small sowings every couple of weeks help maintain a steady, continuous harvest through the cooler parts of the growing season.

Our Take

If you have never grown lettuce before, we would genuinely recommend starting here – its reliability and speed make it close to foolproof, and we think that track record over so many generations of gardeners speaks for itself.

Vegetable Seeds / Vegetable