Species of Pteropyrum are shrubs. The few leaves may be arranged alternately or in bundles (fascicled). The ochrea is short. The flowers are small and bisexual, with five tepals, two outer and three inner, the three inner clasping the fruit when it forms. There are eight stamens. The ovary is three-angled with three styles. The fruit has three broad wings.[2]
As of March 2019[update], sources varied considerably in the number of species assigned to the genus. Plants of the World Online accepted the following two species:[1]
^Schuster, Tanja M.; Reveal, James L.; Bayly, Michael J. & Kron, Kathleen A. (2015), "An updated molecular phylogeny of Polygonoideae (Polygonaceae): Relationships of Oxygonum, Pteroxygonum, and Rumex, and a new circumscription of Koenigia", Taxon, 64 (6): 1188–1208, doi:10.12705/646.5
