Launaea procumbens
(Roxb.) Ramayya & Rajagopal in Kew Bull. 23(3): 46S.
t. 1. 1969. Prenanthes procumbens Roxb., Fl. Ind. 3: 404. 1832. Launaea nudicaulis
sensu auct. Plur. Ind. non L. nudicaulis (L.) Hook.f. sensu stricto. Fl. Brit. India 3: 416.
1881.
Punj.: Batthal, Dudhalak.
Herbs, perennial, with creeping stolons; stems 10 - 50 cm high, erect, solitary or profusely branched, glabrous. Leaves mostly radical, 4 - 25 x 1 - 4 cm, more or less glabrous, sessile; cauline few or absent, sinuate-lobed or pinnatifid or runcinate-pinnatifid with irregular lobes; teeth white cartilaginous. Inflorescence racemose or paniculate on the spreading branches. Heads cylindric, 5 - 8, 1 - 1.8 x 0.3 - 0.5 cm, erect; peduncle flat, naked or with few bracts. Involucral bracts 2 - 3 seriate; outer ovate, 1.5 - 5 x 0.5 - 1.5 mm, glabrous; inner linear or linear-oblong, 9 - 14 x 1 - 2 mm, glabrous. Ligules yellow. Stigma bluish, bifid, longer than corolla tube. Achenes pale yellow, polymorphous, 2.5 - 4 mm long; outer slightly curved, truncate at base; inner columnar, very thickly ribbed, truncate at both ends, smooth or obtusely rugose, much shorter than pappus. Pappus 6.7 mm long, soft, simple.
Fl. & Fr. March - Sept.
Distrib. India: In fields, marshy places and wastelands, 1100-1800 m. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, Egypt and Iran.
Herbs, perennial, with creeping stolons; stems 10 - 50 cm high, erect, solitary or profusely branched, glabrous. Leaves mostly radical, 4 - 25 x 1 - 4 cm, more or less glabrous, sessile; cauline few or absent, sinuate-lobed or pinnatifid or runcinate-pinnatifid with irregular lobes; teeth white cartilaginous. Inflorescence racemose or paniculate on the spreading branches. Heads cylindric, 5 - 8, 1 - 1.8 x 0.3 - 0.5 cm, erect; peduncle flat, naked or with few bracts. Involucral bracts 2 - 3 seriate; outer ovate, 1.5 - 5 x 0.5 - 1.5 mm, glabrous; inner linear or linear-oblong, 9 - 14 x 1 - 2 mm, glabrous. Ligules yellow. Stigma bluish, bifid, longer than corolla tube. Achenes pale yellow, polymorphous, 2.5 - 4 mm long; outer slightly curved, truncate at base; inner columnar, very thickly ribbed, truncate at both ends, smooth or obtusely rugose, much shorter than pappus. Pappus 6.7 mm long, soft, simple.
Fl. & Fr. March - Sept.
Distrib. India: In fields, marshy places and wastelands, 1100-1800 m. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, Egypt and Iran.
