The Rubiaceae, commonly called the coffee, bedstraw or madder family, is the fourth largest flowering plant family after the Orchidaceae, Asteraceae and Faba- ceae. It includes some 600 genera and about 10,000 species with a cosmopoli- tan distribution which is concentrated mainly in the tropics and subtropics. Despite its large size, the names of most genera in the family are not particularly recognizable but some of the more familiar ones would be Gardenia, Coffea (the source of coffee), Cinchona (the source of quinine), and Galium (bedstraw). Most family members are trees and shrubs. The leaves are simple and usually entire, mostly opposite with some whorled. The family takes its name from genus Rubia, an epithet derived from the Latin ruber or "red," for a reddish dye present in the roots. The corollas are typically sympetalous and 4-5-lobed, and the ovary nearly always inferior.