Annual, rarely perennial root-hemiparasitic herbs, hirsute, pilose or scabrid. Stems simple or branched, erect, square or terete. Leaves opposite or subopposite, sessile or subsessile, sometimes reduced to small scales at the base. Inflorescence a dense or lax terminal spike or raceme. Flowers sessile or subsessile. Bracts leaf-like or reduced. Calyx tubular, (4-) 5 (-8) lobed; lobes equal or subequal. Corolla white, red, lilac, cream or orange, tube cylindrical with an acute bend; limb 2-tipped, upper lip 2-fid or emarginate, lower lip 3-lobed. Stamens 4, didynamous, included; anthers monothecous. Ovary tubular. Style usually persistent; stigma clavate. Capsule oblong or subovoid, with loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds numerous, minute, with prominent ornamental ridges. 

In the APG III classification (2009) Striga is included in the family Orobanchaceae.

A genus with about 40 species, distributed in Africa, Asia and Australia, represented in Pakistan by 3 species.

Excluded species:

Striga densiflora (Benth.) Benth. in Hook. Companion Bot. Meg. 1: 363. 1836.

R. R. Stewart (Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. Kashm. 662. 1972) recorded Striga densiflora (Benth.) Benth. on the basis of a specimen collected by Joshi from Lahore, having yellow flowers and 10 ribbed calyx. As S. densiflora is characterized by 5-ribbed calyx and white flowers, hence this record is obviously based on a misidentification.