Caprifoliaceae

Shrubs, woody vines or non-woody (herbaceous) species, mostly with simple, opposite leaves, flowers with fused petals and tubular to bell-shaped, and fruit a berry or stone fruit. Many species are cultivated as ornamentals.

Tubular to bell-shaped flowers mostly where the leaf joins the stem, in pairs or in clusters, stalked or not. Sepals 5, separate to fused. Petals 5, fused, sometimes with 2 lobes (in Honeysuckles). Stamens 5, distinct, attached at their bases to petals. Style 1. The ovary inferior, located below the point of attachment of the other flower parts. Nectar produced by closely packed glandular hairs on the lower part of the petal tube.

Leaves mostly simple and opposite with smooth edges. Leaves may or may not be stalked and/or hairy, fused or united by a ridge around the stem in Horse-gentian, and sometimes are not yet expanded at time of flowering. Stipules absent.