Launaea acaulis - Stemless Hawksbeard

Stemless Hawksbeard is a perennial herb 10-35 cm tall, almost stemless or so, rosette forming, hairless. Stems are few to some, slender, rising up-erect, sparsely branched or simple, leafless or rarely with a few leaves near base. Rosette leaves are spoon-shaped to lanceshaped, 5-14 x 0.5-1 cm, base wedge-shaped, margin finely toothed and nearly entire to shallowly wavy-toothed, tip pointed, blunt, or rounded. Flowers are borne in sparse corymbs, with 1 to a few flower-heads. Flower-heads usually have 10-14 yellow florets. Involucre is cylindric, 1.2-1.5 cm at anthesis, to 1.7 cm in fruit. Phyllaries are narrow or indistinct scarious margin; outer phyllaries triangular-ovate to lanceshaped, longest about 1/2 as long as inner phyllaries; inner phyllaries 5-9. Seedpods are whitish, homomorphic, columnar, cylindric, or somewhat spindle-shaped, 4-7 mm, with 5 main ribs, tip flat. Pappus is 6-8 mm, persistent. Stemless Hawksbeard is found from Afghanistan to the Himalayas to China and SE Asia, and Western Ghats down South to Kerala. Flowering: April-May.