Plants herbs, shrubs or trees; usually monoecious, indumentum usually simple, often glandular. Leaves alternate, often ovate, toothed. Inflorescences raceme-like axilllary and/or terminal, rarely branched. Flowers unisexual. Staminate flowers minute, in clusters of catkin-like inflorescences; calyces valvately 4-lobed, closed in bud; petals and disc absent; stamens usually 8, free; anthers elongated and contorted Pistillate flowers usually sessile, 1-3(-5) together, axillary to leafy bracts, bract usually accrescent, but sometimes not; calyces imbricately 3-5-lobed; petals abd discs absent; ovaries (2-)3-locular; ovules solitary; styles usually laciniate, oten reddish and showy. Allomorphic flowers (distinctive, modified pistillate flowers sometimes present within or terminating staminate racemes or in the axils with normal inflorescences. Fruits small, deeply-lobed capsules, soon dehiscent; seeds ellipsoidal or subglobose, smooth, carunculate or not.
Acalypha is a pantropical genus of about 450 species, a few species extending into temperate areas of the New World. There are about 50 species in Africa, mostly in higher rainfall regions, plus some introduced ornamentasl, frown for thei foliage and striking pendent inflorescences.