Description: Small perennial, tufted herbs, often with a fleshy taproot, glabrous to densely hairy.
Leaves pinnate, linear, oblong to lanceolate; leaflets linear, lanceolate to obovate, variously divided; leaf sheath conspicuous, occasionally ± succulent; stipules absent.
Inflorescence a simple umbel; bracts oblong, oblanceolate to ovate, shorter than mature fruit. Flowers bisexual, white, pink or rarely yellow. Sepals minute. Petals oblong or ovate, incurved at apex. Stylopodium conical.
Fruit oblong, or ovoid, slightly compressed laterally; carpophore bifid or split to the base; mericarps ± prominently 5-ribbed.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 23 species, Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Borneo, Taiwan, Mexico, Central & South America. Australia: 7 species, (endemic), N.S.W., Vic., Tas., S.A.
Text by J. M. Powell & A. K. Brooks
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves and involucral bracts glabrous except for finely ciliate margins | 2 |
| Leaves and involucral bracts velvety to hirsute | 3 |
| 2 | Densely tufted, often cushion-forming plant, less than 10 cm high; peduncles more or less equal or just exceeding the leaves in fruit; leaf sheaths ciliate; petioles less than 4 cm long; bracts obtuse | Oreomyrrhis pulvinifica |
| Tufted, rosette-forming plant, usually more than 15 cm high; peduncles well exceeding leaves in fruit; leaf sheaths glabrous; petioles more than 5 cm long; bracts acute
Back to 1 | Oreomyrrhis ciliata |
| 3 | Plants with stem branched, branches numerous; peduncles 50–75, in upper axils; umbels 10–15-flowered; pedicels shorter than involucre; fruit 5–10 per umbel | Oreomyrrhis brevipes |
| Plants without an obvious stem, leaves in a basal rosette; umbels more than 15-flowered; peduncles to 25 from the base; pedicels usually longer than involucre; fruit usually more than 10 per umbel
Back to 1 | 4 |
| 4 | Plant shining silvery; petioles stout, often shorter than lamina; involucral bracts 6–8 | Oreomyrrhis argentea |
| Plant hirsute but not silvery; petioles slender, usually longer than lamina; involucral bracts 8–12
Back to 3 | Oreomyrrhis eriopoda |
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