Herbs perennial, forming erect individuals, with bulbils present in axils of at least basal leaves. Leaves alternate, petiolate; leaf blade herbaceous, lacking chalk glands and crystals, margin toothed or lobed. Flowering stem leafy; inflorescence cymose. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, 5-merous. Petals white, rarely reddish, not callose. Filaments subulate to linear; pollen 2-nucleate, exine tectum coarsely striate. Carpels connate for most of placental region, dehiscing distally in fruit; ovary subsuperior. Integuments 2.

About eight species: Asia, Europe, North America, mainly in arctic and montane regions; three species in China.