Koelpinia linearis Pallas, Reise 3: 755. 1776; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 3: 411. 1881.

Herbs annual with slender roots; stems 12 - 40 cm high, erect or decumbent, leafy, usually branched from base upwards; branches slender, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Leaves radical as well as cauline, crowded at base, linear, pointed at apex or slightly rounded, quite entire, 5 - 10 x 0.4 - 0.5 cm, pale green above, glaucous beneath, usually glabrous, rarely sparsely hairy, narrowed at both the ends. Heads cylindric, 1 - 1.5 cm long, erect; peduncle slender. Outer involucral bracts few, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 5 - 6 x 1 - 1.5 mm; inner linear-lanceolate, 6 - 9 x 1 - 1.5 mm, subequal, base keeled at length. Ligules yellow. Achenes narrowly linear, 14 - 15 mm long, much exceeding the bracts, spreading and incurved, puberulous; terminal spines stellate.

Fl. & Fr. July - Sept.

Distrib. India: W. Himalayas, on open sandy slopes, 3000 - 4500 m. Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

Pakistan, W. Asia, N. Africa and C.I.S.