Plants perennial herbs, sometimes flowering in the first year, bisexual or unisexual, prostrate to erect or scambling. Leaves opposite or alternate, entire. Inflorescences of solitary flowers in the axils of scarious bracts of in axialllry or terminal, sessile or pedunculate spikes or panicles of spikelike branches. Flowers small; tepals 5, hyaline, the inner 3 with a single green vitta; stamens 5, shortly monadelphous and alternating with subulate or, rarely, narrowly oblong and truncate or incised pseudostaminodes; ovaries with 1 ovule; styles very short,often slender; stigmas usually 2, short to long and filiform, sometimes solitary, the flowers then probably functionally staminate. Fruits capsules with irregular dehiscence.
Aerva includes about 10 species, all of which are native to the tropics, most to tropical Africa.
GBIF records include introduced and cultivated plants. Consequently, the distribution shown often differs from statements about a taxon's native distribution.
