Mostly perennial herbs or shrubs. Leaves alternate mostly stalked. Flowers bisexual. Flower cluster round to cylindrical in outline, generally terminal and with a woolly stalk. Perianth segments 5, more or less fused at the base. Stamens 5, sometimes several sterile. Ovary with 1 hanging ovule. Fruit balloon-like.
Seed.
Feathery drumstick-like flower heads; petals fused into a tube at the base.
About 90 species from Australia with 1 species in Tasmania and 1 in Malesia.
Source: (1997). Amaranthaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.