The order Ericales is a large and diverse order of the Class Eudicotyledon (or dicotyledons) includes trees, bushes, lianas, and herbaceous plants. Many species in this order have commercial importance, including tea, persimmon, blueberry, kiwifruit, Brazil nuts, argan and azalea.

Together with ordinary autophytic plants, (which plants are those capable of synthesizing its own food from simple organic substances) the Ericales order include chlorophyll-deficient (mycoheterotrophic) plants and carnivorous plants.

The order Ericales contains over 8000 species of which the family Ericacaea is the largest family and which alone accounts for over 4000 species.

Families in the order Ericales follow:

Actinidiaceae has 3 genera and 360 species

Balsaminaceae has 2 genera and 1000 species

Clethraceae has 2 genera and 75 species

Cyrillaceae has 2 genera and 2 species

Diapensiaceae has 6 genera and 15 species

Ebenaceae has 4 genera and 760 species

Ericaceae has 124 genera and 4250 species including Rhododendrom

Fouquieriaceae has 1 genus and 11 species

Lecythidaceae has 20 genera and 250-300 species

Marcgraviaceae has 8 genera and 137 species

Mitrastemonaceae has 1 genus and 2 species

Pentaphylacaceae has 14 genera and 429 species

Polemoniaceae has 25 genera and 270-400 species

Primulaceae has 53 genera and 2790 species

Roridulaceae has 1 genus and 2 species

Sapotaceae has 65 genera and 800 species

Sarraceniaceae has 3 genera and 15 species, Pitcher Plants

Sladeniaceae has 2 genera and 2 species

Styracaceae has 12 genera and 160 species

Symplocaceae has 1 genus and 300 species

Tetrameristaceae has 3 genera and 5 species

Theaceae has 7 genera and 200 species

Theophrastaceae has 8 genera and 95 species