Flowers:
Usually perfect or rarely imperfect and the plants then dioecious; actinomorphic or zygomorphic; parts spirally arranged; gynoecium apocarpous; ovary superior, 1-locular, numerous marginal ovules or 1 basal ovule. [Stamens NOT laminar.]
Many adaptations for pollination
Inflorescences:
Various cymes, racemes, or panicles; terminal
Fruits:
Follicles or achenes (rarely berries from 1 carpel).
Frequent adaptations for dispersal
Habit:
Perennial and annual herbs or rarely vines or somewhat woody
Leaves:
Alternate, simple or compound, without stipules
Examples:
- Eranthis hymenalis — winter aconite
- Caltha palustris — marsh-marigold
- Hepatica nobilis — liverleaf
- Ranunculis septentrionalis — buttercup
- Anemonella thalictroides — rue anemone
- Aquilegia canadensis — columbine
- Delphenium tricorne — larkspur
- Thalictrum revolutum — rue
- Anemone patens — pasque flower
- Anemone cylindrica — thimbleweed
- Anemone fulgens, A. blanda, A. coronaria — windflower
- Actaea pacypoda — white baneberry
- Actaea rubra — red baneberry
- Cimicifuga racemosa — black cohosh
- Clematis — virgin's bower
- Hydrastis canadensis — goldenseal
- Aconitum columbianum — monkshood