Lactuca benthamii C.B. Clarke, Comp. Ind. 273. 1876; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 3: 411. 1881.

Herbs, annual or biennial; stems stout with very stout, flowering branches, 9 - 12 cm, glabrous, minutely puberulous. Leaves chiefly radical, spathulate, oblong 4 - 7 x 1 - 2 cm, entire or obscurely dentate, glabrous, pale above, glaucous beneath, gradually narrowed petiole; cauline leaves linear oblong. Inflorescence corymbose. Heads blackish, narrowly cylindric, 1 - 1.3 x 0.4 - 0.5 cm, erect, peduncled; peduncle slender with few ovate bracts. Outer involucral bracts oblong, ovate, 1 - 2 x 0.8 - 1 mm; inner oblanceolate or linear-oblong, 8 - 9 x 1.5 - 2 mm, finely membranous towards margins, with darker centre. Pappus dirty white, uniseriate, 5 - 7 mm, setose.

Fl. & Fr. July - Aug.

Distrib. India: W. Himalayas, on hill slopes in high elevation, 3000-5500 m. Jammu & Kashmir.

Endemic.

Notes. The identity of this species is doubtful as only immature achenes are available on the only available collection of Stoliczka, which is the Type. More collections are needed to correctly assign the status of the species.