This species is a perennial sub-shrub with mounded habit to 0.6 m. Its inflorescence forms a wire-netting-like structure around the plant, while its leaves are seasonally deciduous growing from rocky areas along steep wadi that would receive brief but significant, fast-flowing water during rains. It is often associated with Forsskaolea viridis. The plant has atypical flowers for an Asteraceae, with four yellow ray flowers but no disc flowers (D. Aplin pers. comm. 2019). This dwarf shrub can be found growing in silty substrates within gravel wadis and plains in addition to the margins of nearby fields (Feulner 2011). Lactuca orientalis is a crop wild relative of lettuce, Lactuca sativa (Kameswara Rao 2013).