Prenanthes acaulis Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., ed. 1832, 3: 403. 1832; Crepis acaulis (Roxburgh) J. D. Hooker; Lactuca glabra Candolle; Launaea glabra (Candolle) Franchet; Microrhynchus glaber Wight; Youngia acaulis (Roxburgh) Candolle.

Herbs 10-35 cm tall, perennial, subacaulescent or caulescent, rosulate, glabrous. Rootstock thick, woody, with shoot-bearing roots. Stems few to some, slender, ascending-erect, sparsely branched or simple, leafless or rarely with a few leaves near base. Rosette leaves (sometimes a few extended to basal portion of flowering shoot) spatulate to lanceolate, 5-14 × 0.5-1 cm, base cuneate, margin denticulate and subentire to shallowly sinuate-dentate, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded. Synflorescence sparsely corymbiform, with 1 to a few capitula. Capitula with usually 10-14 florets. Involucre cylindric, 1.2-1.5 cm at anthesis, to 1.7 cm in fruit. Phyllaries with narrow or indistinct scarious margin; outer phyllaries triangular-ovate to lanceolate, longest ca. 1/2 as long as inner phyllaries; inner phyllaries 5-9. Achene whitish, homomorphic, columnar, cylindric, or subfusiform, 4-7 mm, with 5 main ribs, apex truncate. Pappus 6-8 mm, persistent. Fl. and fr. Apr-May. 2n = 18.

Roadsides on mountain slopes, wastelands, sparsely forested steppes; 300-3600 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan, Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, N Thailand, N Vietnam].