widely distributed family of mostly tropical trees and shrubs and herbs; includes coffee and chinchona and gardenia and madder and bedstraws and partridgeberry

Rubiaceae is a family of flowering plants, variously called the madder, bedstraw, or coffee family. Other common plants included here are gardenia, cinchona, partridgeberry, gambier, ixora, and noni. A number of formerly accepted families (Dialypetalanthaceae, Henriqueziaceae, Naucleaceae, and Theligonaceae) are now incorporated within the Rubiaceae following genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group.