Description: Shrubs or small trees, glabrous or papillose, dioecious.
Leaves erect or spreading, linear-terete, sometimes obovate or lanceolate.
Inflorescence axillary, [racemes or] flowers solitary. Calyx lobed. Male flowers with stamens either in 1 whorl around a central disc, or in several whorls covering disc. Female flowers with globose ovary of 1–30 carpels.
Fruit ± globose; carpels ovoid or obovoid, mostly dry, sometimes succulent, dehiscing along outer margin; seeds with basal aril. Some species short-lived.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 12 species, endemic Australia. Australia: all States, chiefly southern and arid Australia
Text by G. J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves not hooked at apex, scattered; carpels 2, opposite | Gyrostemon thesioides |
| Leaves usually hooked at apex, rather crowded; carpels 4–7, united around a central column | Gyrostemon australasicus |
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