Coming from the southern hemisphere, these plants make mats of trailing stems, with small, rounded, serrated leaves, usually in interesting colours - grey-green, bronze or purplish. The flowers are on short upright stems, and are followed by the hooked seeds, which attach themselves to anything passing by.

Acaena ovalifolia makes a compact, green mat, with distinctive purple-red spines on the flowers and seedheads. It comes from South America, including the Falkland Islands.