Herbs annual to perennial. Root fusiform or tuberous. Stem erect, branched, retrorsely hispid with white or grayish hairs (Chinese species). Leaves petiolate; petioles sheathing; blade 2-pinnate to pinnately decompound. Umbels compound, terminal and lateral; bracts usually absent (Chinese species); bracteoles 2–6. Calyx teeth obsolete. Petals white, pale yellow or pale blue-purple, obovate-orbicular, with incurved apex. Styles shorter than stylopodium. Fruit linear-oblong, flattened laterally, commissural surface narrow, glabrous; ribs 5, obtuse, sometimes inconspicuous; mericarps subterete in cross section; vittae 1 in each furrow, 2 on commissure. Seed face concave or with a broad, shallow sulcus. Carpophore entire or bifid at the apex.

About 40 species: Europe, North America; two species in China.

(Authors: She Menglan (佘孟兰 Sheh Meng-lan); Mark F. Watson)