Leaves: blades 2-7 cm, lobes oblong to triangular, abaxially ± floccose-tomentose, glabrate in age. Heads 3-5+ cm diam., nodding in bud. Paleae 7--13 mm, persistent after cypselae have fallen. Involucres broadly cylindric to campanulate, 15-35 mm. Phyllaries often with reddish tips and dots, outer broadly rounded, 2-6 mm, inner 15-35 mm. Cypselae 4-7 mm; pappi 20-27 mm. 2. = 14. Flowering Mar-May. Sandy washes, dry slopes, chaparral, pine-oak-juniper woodlands, montane coniferous forests; 20-2400 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev.; Mexico (Baja California). Anisocoma acaulis grows on the southwestern fringe of the Great Basin and in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.

Plant: Annual; sap milky Leaves: all basal, 3-5 cm, pinnately lobed; lobes toothed, ± hairy INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head resembling a flower; head ligulate, solitary, 2-3 cm; peduncle 5-20 cm, glabrous; phyllaries papery-transparent on margins, often with reddish tips and dots, in several series, outer short, oblong, blunt, inner linear, pointed; receptacle with long, narrow chaff scales Flowers: many; ligules pale yellow, readily withering; stamens 4-5, anthers generally fused into cylinder around style, often appendaged at tips, bases, or both, filaments generally free, generally attached to corolla near throat; pistil 1, ovary inferior, 1-chambered, 1-seeded, style 1, branches 2, generally hair-tufted at tip, stigmas 2, generally on inside of style branches Fruit: achene, 10-15-veined; pappus of plumose bristles in 1 series, white, those on inner side of achene < on outer Misc: Sandy washes, dry slopes; 600-2400 m.; Apr-Jun