I have to admit this is mostly here because it is just so damn pretty! These bags of salad are for sale in both our local Farmers' Markets and I couldn't resist photographing and buying, who could? The flowers are Calendula, Nasturtium and something called 'blue buttons' according to the salad salesman, which looks like some kind of cornflower to me.
Of these, Calendula is obviously the best known herbally for its anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial effects, though I can't pretend that a scattering of petals will have a lot of medicinal value. However, the salad as a whole contains a great mix of different leaves, including things like rocket (or arugula as it's called here) and raddiccio.
Eating bitter tasting leaves makes a lot of sense from a health perspective, as the bitter taste itself is a wonderful stimulant to the digestive system. The mouth releases additional saliva in response to bitter tastes and this sets off a cascade of digestive juices all the way through to bile from the liver. Consequently food is broken down, and therefore absorbed, more effectively. It's why aperitifs are so popular in Europe: they always contain bitter herbs such as Gentian or Wormwood (the infamous Artemisia absinthum of Absinthe fame), which also gives its name to vermouth.
A lot of commercially produced salad leaves have have had the bitterness bred out over the years, creating sweeter, milder salads such as baby gem or icebergs. I wouldn't want to add their parent Wild Lettuce (Lactuca virosa) to my salad bowl as it is intensely bitter and rather spiky, not to mention an effective sedative which would risk sending half the table to sleep. But you can add a little bitterness with the wilder greens like rocket and lettuce as well as chicory and artichokes. And if you want to precede it with a stiff martini or deliciously retro Campari and soda, then you can congratulate yourself that you are doing it for the good of your digestion!