Noxious herbaceous perennial , with woody stolons that root at the nodes and bur-like seed heads .
Stems are prostrate to erect depending on environmental conditions.
Typically, plants grow clustered together forming large mats where individual plants are indistinguishable. Introduced from New Zealand. Numerous species and varieties or hybrid populations of Acaena are described in New Zealand, and opinions differ as to their distinction. Pale biddy-biddy may be naturalized as a weed to an uncertain extent, but A. anserinifolia has not escaped cultivation. Populations of biddy-biddy were previously misidentified as A. anserinifolia .