Well-known asterids include dogwoods and hydrangeas (order Cornales), tea, blueberries, kiwifruit, Brazil nuts, argan, sapote, and azaleas (order Ericales), sunflowers, lettuce, common daisy, yacon, carrots, celery, parsley, parsnips, ginseng, ivies, holly, honeysuckle, elder, and valerian (clade campanulids), borage, forget-me-nots, comfrey, coffee, frangipani, gentian, oleander, periwinkle, basil, mint, rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme, lavender, wild dagga, olives, ash trees, teak, foxgloves, lilac, jasmine, snapdragons, African violets, butterfly bushes, sesame, psyllium, potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes, chilli peppers, tobacco, petunias, morning glory, and sweet potato (clade lamiids).

[citation needed] The name asterids (not necessarily capitalised) resembles the earlier botanical name but is intended to be the name of a clade rather than a formal ranked name, in the sense of the ICBN.

Genetic analysis carried out after APG II maintains that the sister to all other asterids are the Cornales.

[3] Cornales Ericales Aquifoliales Asterales Escalloniales Bruniales Apiales Dipsacales Paracryphiales Icacinales Metteniusales Garryales Boraginales Gentianales Vahliales Lamiales Solanales The lamiid subclade consists of about 40,000 species and account for about 15% of angiosperm diversity, characterized in general by superior ovaries and corollas with any fusion of the petals (sympetaly) occurring late in the process of development.

It has been suggested that the core lamiids radiated from an ancestral line of tropical trees in which the flowers were inconspicuous and the fruit large, drupaceous and often single-seeded.