Shrublets, prostrate, compact, often forming a mat or cushion. Stems slender, many-branched. Leaves subsessile, often crowded, margin entire. Flowers solitary, subsessile or on a short scape. Calyx with 2 or 3 bracts at base. Corolla campanulate, 5-lobed to middle or more basally, caducous. Staminodes minute or absent. Ovary globose, 3-locular. Style erect, filiform; stigma entire, capitate, or slightly 3-lobed. Capsule 3-locular, ellipsoid or globular, surrounded by persistent calyx; scape elongating in fruit.

The circumpolar Diapensia lapponica Linnaeus could possibly be found in the Changbai Shan of S Jilin.

Four species: Asia, N Europe, North America; three species (one endemic) in China.