Plants annual to perennial herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs. Stems often 4-angled, sometimes winged, glabrous to densely pubescent. Leaves in basal rosettes or opposite, at least the lower leaves, sessile or petiolate, sometimes basally connate, simple, with pinnate or palmate venation, entire to dentate or crenate. Inflorescences bracteate racemes or of solitary flowers. Flowers pedicllate; calyces 5-lobed; corollas 2-lipped, often with glandular hairs inside; stamens 4,usually 2 long and 2 short, sometimes 2 and 2 staminodes, some or all filaments sometimes curved, geniculate, or spurred, thecae confluent to touching at the base or stipitate and separated; ovaries superior, usually ovoid to globose, sometimes conical; styles simple, filiform; stigmas 2-lobed. Fruits capsules, with longitudinal, often septicial, dehicence; seeds many.
The family Linderiaceae has only reccently become widely accepted, having been included previously in either Scrophulariaceae (as in the Flora of Somalia) or Plantaginaceae. It has about 19 genera and 260 species and grows in tropical to warm temerate regions throughout the world.