Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Mainly woody perennials with opposite leaves usually basally joined by a ridge without stipules.

Bisexual flowers borne in terminal cymose inflorescences or rarely reduced to 2 flowers terminal on short lateral branches; sepals 2-5, scarcely connate basally, persistent; corolla actinomorphic with 2-5 lobes or zygomorphic and 2-lipped with the upper lip 4-lobed and the lower one entire; stamens as many as the corolla lobes and alternating with them, the anthers 2-celled, the filaments connate to the corolla tube; ovary inferior, 5- to 1-celled by often incomplete reduction, with 1 to few pendulous ovules in each cell; stigma terminal, sometimes 3-lobed or -partite but then with a very short style.

Seeds with endosperm.

Distribution:  Most of the records from S.Aust. (below) are from areas close to habitations so that it can often not be established without any doubt whether the plants are truly naturalised.

Biology: No text

Uses: A number of species of the genera Leycesteria, Lonicera, Sambucus, Viburnum and Weigelia are widely cultivated in Australia.

Taxonomic notes: Due to their somewhat different flowers the genera Viburnum and Sambucus, or only Sambucus, are sometimes split off as a separate family, the Sambucaceae.

Key to Genera:

1. Leaves pinnately compound	SAMBUCUS 2.
1. Leaves simple
2. Corolla zygomorphic; hairs simple	LONICERA 1.
2. Corolla actinomorphic; some hairs stellate	VIBURNUM 3.

Author: Prepared by H. R. Toelken