Plants 5-35 cm. Leaves basal; petioles 0.5-9 cm; blades oblong-oblanceolate, 2.5-23 cm, bases cuneate, margins pinnately lobed (lobes ovate), spinulose-dentate, apices acute, faces hirtellous and/or finely stipitate-glandular. Heads borne singly or 2-3 together (on scapiform peduncles). Involucres turbinate, 14-17 mm. Phyllaries in 2-4 series, lanceolate to subulate (3-15 mm), margins glandular-hairy, apices acuminate, abaxial faces glandular. Receptacles reticulate, hispidulous. Florets 25-53; corollas pink or lavender-pink, 12-22 mm. Cypselae fusiform to linear-fusiform, 4-8 mm, stipitate-glandular and/or hispidulous; pappi tan or white, 1-17 mm. 2n = ca. 54.

Flowering year round (mostly Mar-Aug). Juniper forests, oak woodlands, dry matorral, desert scrub on calcareous, sandy clay, and gypsiferous soils; 0-1600 m; Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Hidalgo, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas).

Acourtia runcinata is the most widespread species of the genus, within which it is unique in possessing fasciculate, tuberous-fusiform roots. In the flora, it grows in central and southwestern Texas.