Lactuca dolichophylla Kitam.

Herbs ca. 1 m tall, annual or biennial. Stem solitary, erect, paniculate apically, glabrous. Lower stem leaves linear to linear-lanceolate, undivided or pinnately lobed, base sagittately clasping stem, apex acuminate; lobes when present linear, apex acute. Upper stem leaves undivided, smaller, otherwise similar to lower leaves. Synflorescence paniculiform, with numerous capitula. Capitula with 12-20 florets; peduncle wiry. Involucre narrowly cylindric and 9-10 mm at anthesis, ovoid and to 1.6 × 0.8 cm in fruit. Phyllaries apically purplish red, abaxially glabrous, apex acute; outer phyllaries triangular-ovate to linear-lanceolate, approaching inner phyllaries to 3/4 their length; inner phyllaries ca. 5. Florets blue. Achene body dark brown, narrowly ellipsoid to obcolumnar, 4.5-5 mm, compressed, with 3-5 ribs on either side; beak greenish, filiform, 2.5-3 mm. Pappus 6-7 mm. Fl. and fr. Sep. 2n = 16.

It is a temperate plant. It grows in cool arid, regions. In the Indian Himalayas it grows between 1,300-3,800 m above sea level. In Yunnan.

The leaves are cooked and used as a vegetable and also as a flavouring.