Flowers: Perfect, actinomorphic, 4-merous, with hypanthium; carpels syncarpous, ovary inferior; ovules often numerous, axile or parietal; pollen sometimes with viscin threads

Inflorescences: Solitary and axillary or in racemes or spikes

Fruits: Capsule or berry

Habit: Herbs or shrubs, sometimes aquatic

Leaves: Simple, opposite, whorled, or alternate, without stipules

Examples:

• Clarkia
• Epilobium (fireweed)
• Fuchsia
• Ludwigia (false loosestrife)
• Oenothera (evening primrose)

NOTE: It is unusual to have a hypanthium with an inferior ovary (but also in Rosaceae subfamily Maloideae)