The Aquifoliaceae are a group of about 400 species of primitive asterid flowering plants. Nearly all of these species belong to the genus Ilex, commonly known as the hollies. Most are evergreen trees or shrubs, though there are deciduous species that lose their leaves seasonally. Most Americans and Europeans are familiar with the spiny-leaved species Ilex aquifolium (English holly) or Ilex opaca (American holly), but it is actually uncommon for hollies to produce spines on their leaves.

Burseraceae is a moderate-sized family of 17-18 genera and about 540 species of flowering plants. The actual numbers differ according to the time period in which a given source is written describing this family. The Burseraceae is also known as the Torchwood family, the frankincense and myrrh family, or simply the incense tree family. The family includes both trees and shrubs, and is native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Asteraceae or Compositae are an exceedingly large and widespread family of Angiospermae. The group has more than 23,000 currently accepted species, spread across 1,620 genera and 12 subfamilies. In terms of numbers of species, Asteraceae is rivaled only by Orchidaceae. The main feature of the family is the composite flower type in the form of capitula surrounded by involucral bracts.The name "Asteraceae" comes from Aster, the most prominent generum in the family, that derives from the Greek ἀστήρ meaning star, and is connected with its inflorescence star form.

Crassulaceae, or the orpine family, are a family of dicotyledons. They store water in their succulent leaves. They are found worldwide, but mostly occur in the Northern Hemisphere and southern Africa, typically in dry and/or cold areas where water may be scarce. The family includes about 1,400 species in 33 genera.

Brassicaceae, a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants (Angiosperms), are informally known as the mustards, mustard flowers, the crucifers or the cabbage family. The name Brassicaceae is derived from the included genus Brassica. Cruciferae, an older name, meaning "cross-bearing", describes the four petals of mustard flowers, which are reminiscent of a cross; it is one of eight plant family names without the suffix -aceae that are authorized alternative names, and thus both Cruciferae and Brassicaceae are used.

The Cupressaceae or cypress family is a conifer family with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27 to 30 genera (17 monotypic), which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130-140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecious or (rarely) dioecious trees and shrubs from 1–116 m (3–379 ft) tall. The bark of mature trees is commonly orange- to red- brown and of stringy texture, often flaking or peeling in vertical strips, but smooth, scaly or hard and square-cracked in some species.

Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green bacteria, blue-green algae, and Cyanophyta, is a phylum of bacteria that obtain their energy through photosynthesis. The name "cyanobacteria" comes from the color of the bacteria (Greek: κυανός (kyanós) = blue). The ability of cyanobacteria to perform oxygenic photosynthesis is thought to have converted the early reducing atmosphere into an oxidizing one, which dramatically changed the composition of life forms on Earth by stimulating biodiversity and leading to the near-extinction of oxygen-intolerant organisms. According to endosymbiotic theory, chloroplasts in plants and eukaryotic algae have evolved from cyanobacterial ancestors via endosymbiosis.

The Ginkgoaceae is a family of gymnosperms which appeared during the Mesozoic Era, of which the only extant representative is Ginkgo biloba, which is for this reason sometimes regarded as a living fossil. Formerly, however, there were several other genera, and forests of ginkgo existed. Because leaves can take such diverse forms within a single species, these are a poor measure of diversity, but wood structure points to the existence of diverse ginkgo forests in ancient times.

A family of insects in the superfamily Coccoidea (order Hemiptera). They sometimes are called lac insects or lac scales.

The mints, taxonomically known as Lamiaceae or Labiatae, are a family of flowering plants. They have traditionally been considered closely related to Verbenaceae, but in the 1990s, phylogenetic studies suggested that many genera classified in Verbenaceae belong instead in Lamiaceae. The currently accepted version of Verbenaceae may not be more closely related to Lamiaceae than some of the other families in the order Lamiales. It is not yet known which of the families in Lamiales is closest to Lamiaceae.

The Lauraceae are the laurel family, that includes the "True Laurel" and its closest relatives. The family comprises over 3000 species of flowering plants in over 50 genera world-wide. They occur mainly in warm temperate and tropical regions, especially Southeast Asia and South America. Most are aromatic evergreen trees or shrubs, but one or two genera such as Sassafras are deciduous, and Cassytha is a genus of parasitic vines.

The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, are a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third-largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species. The largest genera are Astragalus (over 2,400 species), Acacia (over 950 species), Indigofera (around 700 species), Crotalaria (around 700 species), and Mimosa (around 500 species).

The Malvaceae are a family of flowering plants containing over 200 genera with close to 2,300 species. Well-known members of this family include okra, cotton, and cacao. The largest genera in terms of number of species include Hibiscus (300 species), Sterculia (250 species), Dombeya (225 species), Pavonia (200 species), and Sida (200 species).

The Myrtaceae are a family of dicotyledon plants, placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, clove, guava, feijoa, allspice, and eucalyptus belong here. All species are woody, with essential oils, and flower parts in multiples of four or five. One notable character of the family is that the phloem is located on both sides of the xylem, not just outside as in most other plants. The leaves are evergreen, alternate to mostly opposite, simple, and usually with an entire (not toothed) margin. The flowers have a base number of five petals, though in several genera the petals are minute or absent. The stamens are usually very conspicuous, brightly coloured and numerous.

Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains eight genera. There are about 70 species of water lilies around the world. The genus Nymphaea contains about 35 species across the Northern Hemisphere. The genus Victoria contains two species of giant water lilies and can be found in South America. Water lilies are rooted in soil in bodies of water, with leaves and flowers floating on the water surface. The leaves are round, with a radial notch in Nymphaea and Nuphar, but fully circular in Victoria.

Phytolaccaceae is the botanical name for a family of flowering plants. Such a family has been almost universally recognized by taxonomists, although its circumscription has varied. It is also known as the Pokeweed family. The APG II system, of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system, of 1998), also recognizes this family and assigns it to the order Caryophyllales in the clade core eudicots. The family comprises about 16 genera, totalling a hundred species. It is divided into the subfamilies Agdestioideae, Phytolaccoideae, and Rivinioideae by the Takhtajan system.

The Poaceae (also called Gramineae or true grasses) are a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants. With more than 10,000 domesticated and wild species, the Poaceae represent the fifth-largest plant family, following the Orchidaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Rubiaceae. Though commonly called "grasses", seagrasses, rushes, and sedges fall outside this family. The rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the order Poales, but the seagrasses are members of order Alismatales. Grasslands are estimated to compose 20% of the vegetation cover of the Earth. Poaceae live in many other habitats, including wetlands, forests, and tundra.

The Polyporaceae are a family of bracket fungi belonging to the Basidiomycota. The flesh of their fruiting bodies varies from soft (as in the case of the Dryad's Saddle illustrated) to very tough. Most members of this family have their hymenium (fertile layer) in vertical pores on the underside of the caps, but some of them have gills (e.g. Panus) or gill-like structures (such as Daedaleopsis, whose elongated pores form a corky labyrinth). Many species are brackets, but others have a definite stipe - for example: Polyporus badius. Most of these fungi have white spore powder but members of the genus Abundisporus have colored spores and produce yellowish spore prints. Cystidia are absent.

Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, variously called the coffee family, madder family, or bedstraw family. The group contains many commonly known plants, including the economically important coffee (Coffea), quinine (Cinchona), and gambier (Uncaria), the medicinal ipecacuanha (Carapichea ipecacuanha), and the horticulturally valuable madder (Rubia), west Indian jasmine (Ixora), partridgeberry (Mitchella), Morinda, Gardenia, and Pentas. Members of the coffee family tend to be concentrated in warmer and tropical climates around the world. Currently, about 611 genera and more than 13,000 species are placed in Rubiaceae. This makes it the fourth-largest family of flowering plants by number of species, and fifth-largest by number of genera.

Sapindaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales. There are about 140–150 genera with 1400–2000 species, including maple, horse chestnut, and lychee. Sapindaceae members occur in temperate to tropical regions, many in laurel forest habitat, throughout the world. Many are lactiferous, i.e. they contain milky sap, and many contain mildly toxic saponins with soap-like qualities in either the foliage and/or the seeds, or roots. The largest genera are Serjania, Paullinia, Acer and Allophylus. The largely temperate genera formerly separated in the families Aceraceae (Acer, Dipteronia) and Hippocastanaceae (Aesculus, Billia, Handeliodendron) were included within a more broadly circumscribed Sapindaceae by the APG. Recent research has confirmed the inclusion of these genera in Sapindaceae.

Sapotaceae is a family of flowering plants, belonging to order Ericales. The family includes approximately 800 species of evergreen trees and shrubs in approximately 65 genera (35-75, depending on generic definition). Distribution is pantropical. Many species produce edible fruits, and/or have other economic uses. Species noted for their edible fruits include Manilkara (Sapodilla, Sapota), Chrysophyllum cainito (Star-apple or Golden Leaf Tree), Pouteria (Abiu, Canistel, Lúcuma, Mamey sapote), Vitellaria paradoxa (Shea) and Sideroxylon australe (Australian native plum). Shea (shi in several languages of West Africa and karité in French; also anglicized as Shea butter) is also the source of an oil-rich nut, the source of edible "shea butter," which is the major lipid source for many African ethnic groups and is also used in traditional and Western cosmetics and medications. The 'miracle fruit,' Synsepalum dulcificum is also in Sapotaceae.

Many scientists still place the Selaginellales in the class Lycopodiopsida (often misconstructed as "Lycopsida"). This group of plants has for years been included in what, for convenience, was called "fern allies". S. moellendorffii is an important model organism, and its genome was sequenced by the United States Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute. Selaginella species are creeping or ascendant plants with simple, scale-like leaves (microphylls) on branching stems from which roots also arise. The plants are heterosporous (megaspores and microspores), and have structures called ligules, scale-like outgrowths near the base of the upper surface of each microphyll and sporophyll. Under dry conditions, some species of Selaginella roll into brown balls (a phenomenon known as poikilohydry). In this state, they may be uprooted. Under moist conditions the brown balls become green, because of which these are also known as resurrection plants (as in Selaginella bryopteris).

Solanaceae are a family of flowering plants that includes a number of important agricultural crops, although many species are toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear. Most likely, the name comes from the perceived resemblance that some of the flowers bear to the sun and its rays, and in fact a species of Solanum (Solanum nigrum) is known as the "sunberry". Alternatively, the name has been suggested to originate from the Latin verb solari, meaning "to soothe". This presumably refers to soothing pharmacological properties of some of the psychoactive species of the family. The family includes Datura, Mandragora (mandrake), Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), Lycium barbarum (wolfberry), Physalis philadelphica (tomatillo) , Physalis peruviana (Cape gooseberry flower), Capsicum (chili pepper, bell pepper), Solanum (potato, tomato, eggplant), Nicotiana (tobacco), and Petunia.

Sterculiaceae is a botanical name for a group of flowering plants at the rank of family, which is now considered obsolete. As is true for any botanical name, the circumscription, status and placement of the taxon has varied with taxonomic point of view. The family name is based on the genus Sterculia. As traditionally circumscribed the Sterculiaceae, Malvaceae, Bombacaceae, and Tiliaceae comprise the "core Malvales" of the Cronquist system and the close relationship among these families is generally recognized. Sterculiaceae may be separated from Malvaceae sensu stricto by the smooth surface of the pollen grains and the bilocular anthers.

Styracaceae is a small family of flowering plants in the order Ericales, containing 11 genera and about 160 species of trees and shrubs. The family occurs in warm temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The family is characterised by spirally arranged simple leaves with no stipules; symmetrical white flowers with a corolla of 2-5 (-7) fused petals; and the fruit usually a dry capsule, sometimes winged, less often a fleshy drupe, with 1-2 seeds. Most are large shrubs to small trees 3-15 m tall, but Halesia monticola (H. carolina var. monticola) is larger, with trees 39 m tall known in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina, United States. Several genera include species popular as ornamental trees valued for their decorative white flowers. Benzoin resin, used in herbal medicine and perfumes, is extracted from the bark of Styrax species.

The Apiaceae (or Umbelliferae) are a family of mostly aromatic plants with hollow stems. The family is large, with more than 3,700 species spread across 434 genera; it is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants. Included in this family are the well-known plants: angelica, anise, arracacha, asafoetida, caraway, carrot, celery, Centella asiatica, chervil, cicely, coriander (including cilantro), cumin, dill, fennel, hemlock, lovage, Queen Anne's lace, parsley, parsnip, sea holly, and the now extinct silphium.