Oriental Lettuce is a subshrub 20-60 cm tall, hairless
or nearly so, spiny, branched from base. Flower-heads are borne singly at
branch-ends and stalked or lateral and stalkless, with 4 or 5 pale yellow
florets. Involucre is narrowly cylindric, 7-10 mm at
anthesis, to 1.5 cm in fruit. Phyllaries are green to bluish purple;
outer phyllaries ovate, below velvet-hairy; inner phyllaries 3(or 4),
tip blunt. Flower-cluster-stalk, when present, is sharp-pointed, remaining
as a spine after shedding of flower. Stems are whitish, rigid,
intricately and widely branched. Leaves are glaucous green. Basal
leaves are in rosette, wavy-toothed to pinnately lobed; lateral lobes
2-4 pairs, triangular, retrorse, tip pointed. Stem leaves are similar
to basal leaves but smaller, less incised, and basally with linear ears
adnately long decurrent on stem. Oriental Lettuce is found on
mountain slopes and scree, on clay or loamy soil, on lime deposits, on
gravel, in dry ravines, below 3800 m, in E. Mediterranean to Xinjiang
and W Himalaya, Arabian Peninsula.
Identification credit: Christian Bravard
Photographed in Ladakh.
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The flower labeled Oriental Lettuce is ...