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Annual or biennial herb, erect, 0.3-2 m high; root system shallow; stems hollow, often purplish near the base, branching in the distal part of the plant, glabrous. Leaves crowded near the base or both basal and cauline, sessile, oblanceolate to broadly elliptic, often pinnatilobed with retrorse lobes, 4-30 cm long, 1.5-14 cm wide, base subauriculate, lobes deltoid, to 3 cm long, margins acicular-dentate, apex obtuse to rounded, glabrous. Capitula many, subsessile in large, lax panicles with long side branches; stalks of individual capitula 2-5 mm; involucre 10-12 mm long, conical-cylindric to spreading; phyllaries green, tinged with brown, ovate (outer) to lanceolate (inner), 1.5-12 mm, the outer extending down the stalk, acute, margins broad and hyaline, glabrous or minutely ciliate at the very apex. Florets 20-26 per capitulum; corolla yellow or pale lemon yellow, the ligule drying purplish?, tube 6-8 mm long, distally pilose, ligule 4.5-5 mm long. Achenes grey-black, subcylindric but slightly flattened, 3-4 mm long, with 4 main ribs and 8 thinner ones, all muricate, the apex narrowed into a beak up to 1 mm long; pappus white, 6-8 mm long, of mixed setae and downy hairs.
Achenes grey-black when ripe, 3–4 mm. long, subcylindric-ellipsoid somewhat flattened, constricted above or drawn out into a short distinct apical beak, ± 4-angular with ribs on the angles and 2 secondary ribs between the angles, ribs sharply rugose-muricate; pappus heterogeneous, white, copious, c. 7 mm. long, composed of stiff barbellate setae intermixed with numerous filamentous hairs.
Annual herb, up to 1 m high. Pappus heterogeneous, of setae and of more slender adherent down-like hairs intermixed. Heads terminal on short side branches of inflorescence, 20-26 flowers per head. Inner involucral bracts 7-9; outer involucral bracts acute, with distinct hyaline margins. Achenes glabrous, rugose or verrucose, 2.6-4.0 mm long. Flowers white, cream, yellow or purplish.
Phyllaries several-seriate, grading into the bracteoles of the capitulum stalk; the outer series imbricate increasing ± uniformly in length from c. 1.5–5 mm., then abruptly to 9–12 mm. long in the innermost, broadly ovate-acuminate on the outside and narrowly lanceolate-acute inside, all with a distinct hyaline margin, the midribs becoming swollen and corky towards the base.
Leaves up to c. 24 x 9.5 cm., decreasing in size towards the stem apex, broadly oblanceolate-elliptic in outline, runcinate or remotely pinnately-lobed, apices obtuse-acute to rounded, margins strongly acicular-denticulate, bases sessile to subauriculate, midrib prominent beneath.
Leaves (5–)10–25+ × 2–6(–12) cm, usually runcinately to sinuately lobed, bases ± auri-culate, ultimate margins spinulo-denticulate, apices acute to acuminate. Involucres 10–15 mm. Cypselae 4–5 mm; pappi 6–9 mm. 2n = 18 (as Lactuca runcinata).
A herb. The stems are 1 m tall. It has milky sap. The leaves are crowded near the base. The leaves are 10-25 cm long by 2-6 cm wide. The leaves have lobes and there are teeth at the edge of the last lobes. The flowers are yellow.
Stems up to c. 1(2) m. tall, hollow, leafy throughout or leaves ± crowded below, divaricately branched above; branches up to c. 50(65) cm. long, ascending.
Involucres c. 10 x 2.5 mm. in flowering capitula, up to c. 12 x 4 mm. in fruiting capitula, conical-cylindric at first later spreading.
Florets 20–26 per capitulum; corollas yellow, 11–13 mm. long, ligule c. 5 mm. long and lorate becoming purplish.
Capitula numerous, subsessile to shortly-stalked, singly or in clusters of 2–8 spaced along the branches.
An erect glabrous annual herb.
