Herbs annual to perennial, rarely woody. Leaves alternate, entire to pinnatifid, with small, glandular stipules. Flowers bisexual, rarely unisexual, in terminal racemes or spikes. Sepals persistent, 4-7. Petals usually 4-7 or absent, entire or cleft, hypogynous or perigynous. Stamens 3-40, inserted on disc, exposed in bud; disc often eccentric; filaments free or connate at base; anthers 2-loculed. Carpels 2-6, free or united into a 1-loculed ovary; ovules numerous; placentation parietal or basal. Fruit a capsule or berrylike. Seeds numerous, reniform or suborbicular; endosperm almost absent; cotyledons curved.

Reseda chinensis Loureiro (Fl. Cochinch. 1: 299. 1790) and R. cochinchinensis Loureiro (loc. cit.) are both synonyms of Hypericum japonicum Thunberg (Clusiaceae) according to Merrill (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n.s., 24(2): 267. 1935).

Chen Wei-chiu. 1984. Resedaceae. In: Fu Shu-hsia & Fu Kun-tsun, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 34(1): 1-6.

Six genera and ca. 80 species: Africa, C and SW Asia, Atlantic Islands, S Europe, SW North America, widely naturalized elsewhere; two genera (one introduced) and four species (three introduced) in China.

(Authors: Lu Lianli (Lou Lian-li); Nicholas J. Turland)