A hairy to sparsely pubescent annual, 3-40 cm tall. Stem short or slender and dichotomously branched, often reddish. Leaves 1.8-7 cm long, 3.5 mm-1.4 cm broad, oblong-lanceolate to spathulate, some pinnatifid or pinnatipartite. Fruiting heads 0.9-1.2(-1.5) cm broad. Involucral bracts broadly ovate-acuminate to ovate-lanceolate, 4-6 mm long, pubescent, ciliate, about as long, as or longer than the flowers. Calyx substipitate, setae c. 1 cm long, light brown, much exceeding the flowers. Corollas all of the same size, hispid on the outside. Involucel base silkily hairy; pits conical to obovate, 1-1.2 mm long, ribs between pits not sulcate. Corona 1.5-3 mm long, with 19-22 pubecsent nerves.
Fl.Per.: April-May.
Type: “Inter Bagdat et Kermancha, Olivier (K).”.
Distribution: Caucasus, C. Asia, E. Mediterranean region, Turkey Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A common short-lived spring annual which grows mostly in dry places in Western and Northern parts of Pakistan. The plants from the Punjab are more robust, leafy, pubescent, and have larger flowering heads as compared to those found in other parts of our area.
