4 genera, see text The Polycnemoideae are a small subfamily of plants in the family Amaranthaceae, representing a basal evolutionary lineage.

The subfamily Polycnemoideae comprises small herbs; some species are weakly lignified and grow shrublike.

Later, it was treated as belonging to the family Amaranthaceae in 1849 by Moquin-Tandon (in Prodromus systematis naturalis.... Vol 13).

Oskar Eberhard Ulbrich raised it to subfamilial level in 1934, again within Chenopodiaceae (in Engler & Prantl: Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien.

[1] Phylogenetic research has revealed the Polycnemoideae represent a basal lineage of evolution within the family Amaranthaceae.