Perennial
herbs or shrubs, often scapose; leaves alternate, simple to compound, deciduous
or evergreen, usually the base of the petiole enlarged; flowers in spikes,
racemes, or panicles, peri-anth of several series, 4 or 5, or 3 members each,
outer 1 or 2 decidous; inner series, the corolla, sometimes with glands basally;
fruit a follicle or berry.