Herbs, perennial, erect, blue-gray, yellow lactiferous. Rootstock brown. Stems erect, terete, cymosely branched. Basal leaves in a lax rosette, long petiolate, pinnatisect; lobes obovate-oblong, broadly obovate, or lanceolate, margin crenate, deltoid-lobed, or nearly pinnatisect. Cauline leaves alternate, shortly petiolate; blade like basal leaves. Flowers many, forming axillary umbels, bracteate. Flower buds ovoid. Sepals 2, olivine. Petals 4, yellow, in 2 whorls. Stamens many. Ovary terete, 1-loculed, 2-carpellate, glabrous; styles distinct; stigmas 2-lobed. Capsule narrowly terete, almost moniliform, glabrous, when mature 2 segments divided from base to apex; stigmas persistent. Seeds many, shiny, small, tessellate, cristately carunculate.

One species: Old World temperate areas, from temperate Europe to Japan, widely distributed in China.

(Authors: Zhang Mingli (张明理); Christopher Grey-Wilson)