Plants herbs, subshrubs, shrubs or small trees, often pubescent, hairs simple or branched, glandular or not. Leaves alternate or opposite, sometimes appearing whorled, sometimes basal leaves in a rosette, stem leaves alternate; stipules sometimes present, sometimes reduced to a line; blades simple, entire to pinnatisect, usually pinnately veined. Inflorescences terminal, racemes or panicles, sometimes spikelike, open to dense, flowers axillary, from solitary to paired or clustered, forming open to dense inflorescences. Flowers shortly to distinctly pedicellate, 4-5-merous, sometimes with bracteoles; calyces 4-5-lobed, lobes equal to subequal, often deep; corollas 4-5-lobed, from more or less radially symmetric to bilaterally symmetric; corolla tubes cylindric, funnelform, or campanulate, usually longer than the calyces; corolla lobes from subequal to unequal, in 2-lipped flowers, the lower lips 3-lobed, the upper lips 2-lobed; stamens 4-5, if 5 the median stamens often reduced to staminodes; filaments equal or 2 long and 2 short, sometimes villous; anthers with 2 thecae, these often confluent, sometimes the anthers of shorter stamens empty; ovaries superior, 2-celled, each cell with many ovules; styles filiform; stigmas small to capitate or disc-shaped. Fruits septicidal capsules, sometimes the style base persistent; seeds numerous, variously sculptured.
The family Scrophulariaceae now includes about 60 genera and 1,880 species, many of the genera it used to include having been placed in other families, notably the Plantaginaceae, Orobanchaceae and Linderniaceae. The above description is based on descriptions for the seven genera of the family included in the Flora of Somalia.