They are characterised by opposite toothed leaves, small five- or, more rarely, four-petalled flowers in cymose inflorescences, and the fruit being a drupe.

Much later, the genera Sambucus (elders) and Viburnum were added after careful morphological analysis and biochemical tests by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group.

An additional monotypic genus Sinadoxa has been added based on molecular comparison with Adoxa.

Recent sources, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website, treat this family as Viburnaceae Raf., nom.

[3][4] Adoxa is a small perennial herbaceous plant, flowering early in the spring and dying down to ground level in summer immediately after the berries are mature; the leaves are compound.