Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, marjoram, oregano, hyssop, thyme, lavender, and perilla, as well as other medicinal herbs such as catnip, salvia, bee balm, wild dagga, and oriental motherwort.

Others are grown for seed, such as Salvia hispanica (chia), or for their edible tubers, such as Plectranthus edulis, P. esculentus, P. rotundifolius, and Stachys affinis (Chinese artichoke).

[4] The enlarged Lamiaceae contain about 236 genera[5] and have been stated to contain 6,900[4] to 7,200[5] species, but the World Checklist lists 7,534.

[6] The largest genera are Salvia (900), Scutellaria (360), Stachys (300), Plectranthus (300), Hyptis (280), Teucrium (250), Vitex (250), Thymus (220), and Nepeta (200).

The leaves emerge oppositely, each pair at right angles to the previous one (decussate) or whorled.

Kew Gardens provides a list of genera that includes additional information.

[5] The unplaced genera are: Tectona, Callicarpa, Hymenopyramis, Petraeovitex, Peronema, Garrettia, Cymaria, Acrymia, Holocheila, and Ombrocharis.

The subfamilies are the Symphorematoideae, Viticoideae, Ajugoideae, Prostantheroideae, Nepetoideae, Scutellarioideae, and Lamioideae.

[5][9][7][15][19][20][21] Callicarpa Tectona Gmelina Premna Vitex Congea Symphorema Rotheca Teucrium Ajuga Oxera Faradaya Kalaharia Clerodendrum Volkameria Ovieda Aegiphila Tetraclea Amasonia Chloanthes Prostanthera Westringia Lavandula Siphocranion Isodon Hanceola Hyptis Orthosiphon Ocimum Plectranthus Coleus Elsholtzia Perilla Lepechinia Salvia Rosmarinus Prunella Nepeta Dracocephalum Agastache Origanum Thymus Mentha Satureja Clinopodium Bystropogon Pycnanthemum Monarda Dicerandra Conradina Holmskioldia Scutellaria Pogostemon Phlomis Lamium Stachys Sideritis Haplostachys Stenogyne Phyllostegia Leonurus Marrubium Moluccella Rydingia Leucas Leonotis