[2] The flowers are green, white, cream, yellow, orange, red, pink or brown, sometimes with contrasting markings.

These are followed by elongated pod-like capsules, the two follicles eventually separating to reveal numerous seeds with long, silky hairs.

[2] The genus was named and described in 1810 by botanist Robert Brown in his paper On the Asclepiadeae published in Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society .

[3] He named the genus in honour of James Parsons (1705–1770), an English physician and Fellow of the Royal Society.

[6][7] Accepted species[1] A species from New Zealand, Parsonsia variablis (Variable-leaved Parsonsia), was introduced into cultivation in England in 1847 as a greenhouse plant and was noted to have a sweet scent, however the flowers were regarded as "not very showy".