Micranthes Haworth, Syn. Pl. Succ. 320. 1812.

Herbs perennial, usually evergreen. Rhizomes short, slender or thick, scaly, fibrous rooted. Stem cespitose or simple. Leaves alternate, all basal in rosettes, distinctly petiolate or tapered at base into a broad, indistinct petiole; leaf blade often carnose or leathery, margin often crenate, serrate, or dentate, rarely entire; hydathodes set in leaf margin, equidistant between abaxial and adaxial surfaces, not secreting chalk; foliar crystals present as druses. Flowering stem scapose, sometimes with leaflike bracts; inflorescence cymose, either lax or often much congested and restricted to apex of stem, usually several flowered. Flowers bisexual, usually actinomorphic. Sepals 5. Petals 5(or 7 or 8), usually white, rarely purplish, sometimes with yellow, orange, or purple spots. Stamens 10; filaments linear, subulate, or clavate; pollen 2-nucleate; exine tectum reticulate. Carpels 2, ovuliferous part united only at base or for up to 1/2 its length; styles free; nectary a band or fleshy disc adnate to and encircling base of ovary; ovary superior to more than 1/2 inferior, markedly expanding in fruit; integument 1. Fruit follicular (when carpels united only at base and placentation marginal) or a 2-loculed capsule (when ovuliferous portions united for up to 1/2 their length and placentation axile proximally and marginal distally), often inflated, dehiscing to middle or base. Seeds many, ellipsoid to fusiform, with longitudinal, ribbonlike, undulating or distinctly pectinate ribs, occasionally ribs indistinct or absent.

About 70 species: Asia, Europe, North America, mainly in montane areas; 13 species (six endemic) in China.