Little Gem
Cos or Romaine-type
65 days — 'Little Gem', also known as 'Sutton's Little Gem Cos' or 'Little Gem Cos', is an old lettuce variety that seems to have the seed trade in the U.S. perpetually confused as to how to categorize it. In the U.K., they call it a semi-Cos type. The confusion arises because even though it is a small, Cos or Romaine type of lettuce, it looks like a tiny butterhead when it is growing.
'Little Gem' lettuce is relatively heat tolerant, with small, about five inches across, bright green heads, crisp, crunchy hearts, and an excellent flavor. We are still working on fleshing out its history, but it started appearing in seed catalogs in the United States in the very early years of the twentieth century.
[2,3] One source states that it was developed by
Vilmorin-Andrieux Seed Company and introduced by "Burpee Gardens" in 1880.
[1] We have looked through W. Atlee Burpee seed catalogs, as well as Vilmorin publications from that period, and cannot substantiate this latter claim. Each packet contains one gram, which is approximately 500 to 600 seeds.
