Plants 2.5-30 cm, (divaricately branching). Leaves cauline; sessile; blades rhombic-orbiculate to suborbiculate, 10-50 mm, bases cuneate, margins coarsely and irregularly prickly-dentate, faces glabrous (reticulate). Heads borne singly (at branch tips). Involucres campanulate, 14-17 mm. Phyllaries in 4 series, broadly ovate, margins glandular, apices acute to mucronate, abaxial faces glabrous. Receptacles reticulate (sockets separated by squarish, apically pubescent paleae 1 mm). Florets 15-24; corollas lavender-pink or white, 10-17 mm. Cypselae subcylindric, 3-7.5 mm, densely stipitate-glandular; pappi white or tawny, 10-15 mm. 2n = 54. Flowering (Mar-)Apr(-Jun). Gravel, sandstone, silty, or caliche soils in desert scrub; 0-1800 m; Ariz., N.Mex., Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Zacatecas). Acourtia nana grows primarily in the trans-Pecos and western Edwards Plateau.

Plant: Perennial forb 5-15 cm; stems woolly at base Leaves: leaves alternate, spine-toothed, holly-shaped Flowers: flowers all bilabiate with scabrous, bristly pappus.