Fls perfect, us. 5-4-merous, regular or slightly irregular, mostly in bracted cymes. Ovary adnate to receptacle. Sepals ± connate at base, soon falling. Petals united to long tube seated on margin of epig. disk, lobes spreading. Stamens inserted on corolla-tube, alt. with lobes; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing lengthwise. Ovary 2-5-loculed, style terminal, stigma ± capitate; ovules pend. or axile, us. 1 per locule. Fr. a berry, seeds with cop. endosperm. Mostly shrubs with opp., simple, exstipulate lvs. Some 20 genera and 275 spp., mostly of the northern hemisphere.

Shrubs or small trees, sometimes lianoid. Stems with prominent pith. Lvs opposite, usually simple, sometimes pinnate, usually exstipulate. Infl. usually cymose. Fls usually ☿, very rarely unisexual, regular or irregular. Calyx adnate to ovary; lobes 4-5, small. Corolla gamopetalous; lobes 4-5, imbricate, regular or bilabiate, tubular, or rotate with prominent lobes. Stamens 4-5, epipetalous, free, alternating with corolla lobes. Ovary inferior, 2-5-(8)-celled. Ovules 1-many per cell; placentation axile. Style usually 1, sometimes 0. Fr. usually indehiscent, sometimes dehiscent, either a fleshy berry or drupe, or dry and capsular or achenial. Endosperm fleshy.

Annual to perennial herbs. Lvs opposite or verticillate, sometimes in basal rosettes, often lobed or toothed; stipules 0. Fls bracteate, usually small (florets) and borne in dense, many-flowered cymose capitula, ☿ or ♀, each with a basal epicalyx (involucel) of connate bracteoles which is often expanded distally into a corona, often subtended by a receptacular scale; marginal florets often radiate. Calyx epigynous, small, cupuliform, toothed or setose, pappus-like. Corolla epigynous, tubular, 4-5-lobed, subequal or 2-lipped, usually zygomorphic. Stamens (2)-4, epipetalous; filaments free or united in pairs; anthers 2-locular, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary inferior, 1-locular, mostly adnate to the receptacle; styles slender; ovules solitary, pendulous. Fr. dry, enclosed in epicalyx and often surmounted by a persistent calyx.

Annual or perennial, soft-stemmed herbs, rarely shrubs; rhizomes often strong-smelling. Lvs opposite or radical, entire or lobed, often toothed; stipules 0. Fls bracteate, usually small and born in dense, many-flowered, terminal cymes, often zygomorphic, 5-merous, ☿ or unisexual. Calyx toothed or lobed, epigynous, sometimes forming a pappus. Corolla sympetalous, funnelform, often swollen or spurred at base. Stamens 1-4, usually exserted; anthers 2-locular, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary 3-locular but only 1 loculus fertile, ± inferior; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fr. dry, indehiscent, 1-seeded.