The number of proteins found in body fluids and at cell surfaces, which are known to display carbohydrate‐binding properties, continues to increase rapidly. In these proteins, in addition to a domain associated with lectin properties, one or more, non‐lectin domains are present. It is possible that binding of sugar residues by the lectin domain may be important in triggering a variety of recognition and clearance mechanisms via the non‐lectin domains. The group of lectins containing collagen‐like sequences may provide some insight into structure/function relationships of the different domains in view of the well defined structures already available for several of these molecules.