PLANT: Shrubs or trees LEAVES: opposite (except in a few Asiatic spp.), often gray tomentose, the margin mostly serrate-dentate INFLORESCENCE: usually terminal; flowers in compact cymes in axils of leaves or bracts. FLOWERS: perfect or functionally dioecious, 4-merous, fragrant; calyx tubular; corolla tubular, campanulate, funnelform or salverform; stamens sessile or subsessile, inserted in tube or at throat of corolla; ovary with numerous ovules. FRUITS: capsules, rarely berries. NOTES: Ca. 90 spp. in sw U.S., Mex, C. and S. Amer., s Afr., and Asia. (for A. Buddle, English botanist). Norman, E. M. 1967. Gentes Herbarum 10: 47-114. REFERENCES: Norman, Eliane M. 1992. BERBERIDACEAE. J. Ariz.-Nev. Acad. Sci. 26(1):2