Perennials, (10-)20-40 cm. Stems 1-15+, sparsely lanate. Leaves mostly basal (cauline relatively few); blades green, narrowly oblanceolate to narrowly spatulate, 5-11 cm, margins sinuate, lobed, or toothed (lobes or teeth triangular), faces sparsely to moderately lanate and glandular-puberulent; distal cauline leaves oblong to narrowly lanceolate, much reduced. Heads 1. Involucres obconic to hemispheric, 12-25 mm diam. Phyllaries 8-15 mm, outer lanceolate, apices acute to attenuate. Ray florets 28-59; corolla tubes glabrous, laminae yellow, 8-12 mm. Disc corollas yellow. Cypselae 6-10 mm; pappus scales subequal, 1-1.5 mm. 2n = 38.

Flowering summer. Subalpine to alpine rocky slopes, talus, on various substrates; 2700-4000 m; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Wyo.

Plants of Hulsea algida from the Wallowa Mountains of northeastern Oregon tend to have smaller, more lanate leaves than those elsewhere and have heads slightly larger than those of H. nana. They deserve further study.