Rubiaceae - Bedstraw family

Trees, shrubs, climbers or (in ours) annual or perennial herbs. Leaves simple, opposite or in whorls, entire.

Stipules present, usually interpetiolar, less often intrapetiolar, entire or (in some herbaceous genera) with lobes or fimbriae.

Flowers usually bisexual, rarely unisexual, actinomorphic, borne in terminal or axillary cymes, sometimes in heads. Calyx gamosepalous, 4-5-lobed. Corolla gamopetalous, often with a long tube, 4-5-lobed. Ovary inferior, of 2-5 or more carpels, usually 2. Fruit a capsule, berry or drupe. [Note that the British species belong to the tribe Rubieae, in which the distinction between leaves and stipules appears to break down and there are whorls of similar leaf-like objects.]

Worldwide: 630 genera and 10,200 species, cosmopolitan, but mainly tropical and warm areas.

Britain: 11 genera and 48 taxa.