In the nearly 200 years since the first attempts at classifying the diversity within the family Caryophyllaceae, a wide array of schemes have been proposed. While the most prevalent involves recognition of three subfamilies, studies over the last 50 years have suggested that it may be more appropriate to recognize four, five, or even seven subfamilies and that several genera may be better treated outside of the family. I will present an overview of these classification systems and the primary characters supporting them as background for subsequent papers reporting results from contemporary phylogenetic studies.

Key words: Caryophyllaceae, classification