Acalypha can be evergreen shrubs or trees, or annuals, with simple leaves and catkin-like racemes of tiny flowers, brightly coloured in some species
A. hispida is an erect evergreen shrub of open habit, to 2.5m in height, with large ovate leaves and pendulous fluffy red catkin-like flowerheads to 45cm in length, produced sporadically throuhout the year