Distribution:  Temperate northern hemisphere, both Old World and New with - 5 genera with 13 species in Texas.

flower often large and showy with crumpled petals, ovary a unilocular compound pistil

Significant features: syncarpous herbs with, caducous (early falling, often at anthesis) sepals, leaf blades often basal (some taxa scapose) and pinnately divided.  Most elements of the family express a milky or colored latex derived from specialized cells (laticifers).