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 saccaticupula is a New Zealander, making mats of metallic blue-grey foliage on trailing, chestnut brown stems, which contrast well with the deep red/bronze flowers and then seeding burrs, which rise above the mat on short stems.