Lettuce

• Type: Mundane Plant, Potion Ingredient, Creature Food
• Owners: Not applicable; a common cultivated plant.
• Maker: Not applicable; occurs naturally and is cultivated by both Muggles and wizards.

Lettuce is a common leafy green vegetable known to both the Muggle and Wizarding world. It consists of crisp, green leaves, often forming a dense head or a loose rosette. In the wizarding community, it is used not only for culinary purposes but also as a potion ingredient and as food for certain magical creatures.

While lettuce itself is a mundane plant with no inherent magical properties, it is utilized within the Wizarding world in several specific contexts:

• Creature Food: Lettuce is known to be part of the diet for certain magical creatures.
  1. Abraxans: The giant, winged palomino horses that pulled the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic carriage are known to consume lettuce. (Pottermore)
  2. Diricawls: This plump, flightless bird can reportedly be lured with lettuce. (Pottermore)
• Potion Ingredient: Lettuce is used as an ingredient in some potions.
  1. Girding Potion: Lettuce is a key ingredient in this potion, which provides the drinker with extra endurance and stamina. (video game)
• Mundane Use: It is a common food item for humans, as evidenced by Ron Weasley bringing lettuce for sandwiches into the girls' lavatory where the Polyjuice Potion was being brewed.

Lettuce does not possess a unique or storied history within the magical world in the way a specific magical artifact might. As a common plant cultivated for centuries, it has been a mundane part of life and commerce in both the Muggle and Wizarding world, used primarily for culinary purposes before its applications in Potions and the care of magical creatures were established.

The most notable mention of lettuce in the series serves a humorous purpose. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when Harry Potter and Ron Weasley are helping Hermione Granger brew the Polyjuice Potion, Ron brings food supplies into their secret base in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He places a jar of what appears to be slimy, green leaves on a shelf alongside actual potion ingredients like Lacewing flies and shredded Boomslang skin. When Harry asks if the jar contains Fluxweed, Ron replies, “No… That's the lettuce for the sandwiches.” This moment provides a brief point of levity and realism, highlighting that the trio still had to manage ordinary needs like eating while undertaking a dangerous and complex magical task.

• In the video game Hogwarts Mystery, lettuce is an obtainable Potion Ingredient that players must acquire to brew the Girding Potion. (video game)
• Information regarding the diet of Abraxans and the use of lettuce to lure Diricawls originates from supplementary material published on the Pottermore website (now Wizarding World). (Pottermore)