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.