Launaea aspleniifolia
(Willd.) Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 3: 415. 1881. Prenanthes
aspleniifolia Willd., Sp. Pl. 3: 1540. 1803.
Ben.: Tikchana.
Herbs, biennial or perennial with thick rootstock; stems 5 - 30 cm high, profusely branched from the base, glabrous. Leaves mostly radical, 4 - 9 x 1 - 3.5 cm cauline few, oblanccolate narrowly obovate or pinnatifid or sinuate lobed, sometimes runcinate-pinnatifid, shortly petioled or sessile. Inflorescence terminal, paniculate on dichotomous branches. Heads 0.9 - 1.5 x 0.4 - 0.5 cm, erect, finely glabrous; peduncles slender, with few, minute bracts. Involucral bracts few seriate; outer ovate or somewhat obovate, 1.5 - 4 x 1 - 1.5 mm, quite glabrous; innermost linear or linear-oblong, 10 - 13 x 1.5 - 2.2 mm, finely glabrous. Ligules yellow. Achenes pale brown, 2 - 2.2 mm long, narrow, columnar or somewhat angled, smooth, much smaller than pappus. Pappus white or pale white, 8 - 9 mm long, equal, deciduous.
Fl. & Fr. March - Oct.
Distrib. India: On slopes as well as fields and wastelands, up to 1500 m, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, W. Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Nepal and Pakistan.
Herbs, biennial or perennial with thick rootstock; stems 5 - 30 cm high, profusely branched from the base, glabrous. Leaves mostly radical, 4 - 9 x 1 - 3.5 cm cauline few, oblanccolate narrowly obovate or pinnatifid or sinuate lobed, sometimes runcinate-pinnatifid, shortly petioled or sessile. Inflorescence terminal, paniculate on dichotomous branches. Heads 0.9 - 1.5 x 0.4 - 0.5 cm, erect, finely glabrous; peduncles slender, with few, minute bracts. Involucral bracts few seriate; outer ovate or somewhat obovate, 1.5 - 4 x 1 - 1.5 mm, quite glabrous; innermost linear or linear-oblong, 10 - 13 x 1.5 - 2.2 mm, finely glabrous. Ligules yellow. Achenes pale brown, 2 - 2.2 mm long, narrow, columnar or somewhat angled, smooth, much smaller than pappus. Pappus white or pale white, 8 - 9 mm long, equal, deciduous.
Fl. & Fr. March - Oct.
Distrib. India: On slopes as well as fields and wastelands, up to 1500 m, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, W. Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Nepal and Pakistan.
