Plants dwarf shrubs or perennial herbs, often with a woody base. Leaves simple, without stipules, alternate or in rosettes, glabrous. Inflorescences solitary, heads surrounded by involucral bracts that are more or less persistent after flowering; receptacles elongate. Flowers bisexual; calyces 5-lobed; corollas united, usually blue, usually 2-lipped, lower lip 3-lobed, upper lip smaller, not lobed, sometimes absent; stamens (2-)4, exserted, with 2 thecae. these united distally, dehiscent by a single distal slit; ovaries 1-celled; styles exserted; stigmas 2-lobed. Fruits 1-seeded nutlets, enclosed within the persistent calyces.
Globularia includes more than 20 species which are native in Europe, Macronesia, northern and northeastern Africa, and the Middle East. It used to be included in the Globulariaceae but molecular data have led to inclusion of all members of the family in a greatly expanded Plantagineaceae. It differs from most members of the expanded Plantaginaceae in having densely involucrate inflorescences, unicellular (rather than bicellular) ovaries, and fruits that are nutlets or nuts.
There is, at yet, no key for the Plantaginaceae of Somaliland and Somaliland.
Only one species of Globularia, Globularia arabica, is known from Somaliland. None is known to grow in Somalia.