Herbs perennial, small, usually with slender creeping stolons. Leaves all basal or at nodes of stolons, leaf blade simple, undivided, dentate or 3-lobed to 3-sect. Scapes naked or with a linear bract. Inflorescence a solitary terminal flower or a 2- or 3-flowered monochasium. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic. Sepals 5, deciduous. Petals 5--12, yellow, narrowly obovate, shortly clawed at base, with a nectary pit above base. Stamens numerous or few; anthers ellipsoid. Carpels numerous, spirally arranged on a conical receptacle; ovules 1 per carpel. Aggregate fruit globose or ovoid; achenes bilaterally compressed, with 2 or 3 longitudinal thin ribs on each side; style persistent, straight or curved.

Halerpestes is sometimes placed within Ranunculus .

About ten species: temperate Asia, North & South America; five species (one endemic) in China.

(Authors: Wang Wencai; Michio Tamura)