Plants herbs, shrubs, or trees, often glandular and aromatic. Stems often 4-angled when young. Leaves opposite or whorled, simple or lobed, without stipules. Flowers usually bisexual, rarely unisexual, slightly bilaterally symmetric, in racemes, spikes, or heads; calyx bell-shapped to tubular, 4-5-lobed to truncate; corolla united, ± 2-lipped, 4-5-lobed, the lobes overlapping inbud; stamens usually 4, 2 short and 2 long, inserted on the corolla tube, anthers 2-celled, opening by longitudinal slits; ovary superior, unlobed to ± 4-lobed, 2-celled but becoming 4-8 celled vy development of false septa, usually with 1 ovule per cell attached to the sides of the septa; style terminal, simple, stigmatic region often 2-lobed, sometimes unlobed, sometimes4-lobed. Fruit a drupe, sometimes ± dry, with 2 or 4 seeds or 2-4 nutlets.
The Verbenaceae includes about 36 genera and 1000 species. They are widely distributed in tropical, warm and temperate regions.
Several genera that used to be included in the family, such as Clerodendron, Premna, Rotheca, and Vitex are now included in the Lamiaceae.
