Lactuca orientalis (Boiss.) Boiss., Fl. Orient. 3: 819. 1875; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 3: 404. 1881. Phenopus orientalis Boiss. Voy. Bot. Med. Esp. 2: 390: 1838 (in note.

Herbs, perennial with woody rootstock; stems 12 - 47 cm, glabrous, intricately branched; branches often spinescent, slender, silvery, partly covered by the decurrent leaf bases. Leaves 2 - 5 x 0.5 - 1 cm, sparse, narrow; lower pinnatifid with narrowly spreading or incurved, triangular, acute, entire or slightly toothed lobes; cauline leaves decurrent; upper elliptic or oblanceolate entire. Heads solitary or 2 - 3 in axillary fascicles, narrowly cylindric, 1.1 - 1.5 x 0.2 - 0.3 cm, erect, sessile. Outer involucral bracts ovate, ovate lanceolate, 2 - 5 x 1 - 2 mm; inner bracts linear-oblong, 7.5 - 12 x 1.5 - 2.5 mm. Corolla yellow. Achenes yellowish or pale brown, 5.5 - 7.0 mm long including beak, very smooth, narrowed at both ends, finely glabrous, strongly 6 - 8 ribbed on each face. Pappus pale or silvery, 4 - 5.5 mm long, simple.

Fl. & Fr. July - Oct.

Distrib. India: W. Himalayas on exposed dry slopes, 2000-4600 m Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, Iraq and Syria.