Herbs perennial. Stems numerous, erect. Basal leaves 1--3 × ternately compound, long petiolate; leaflets lobed or parted. Stem leaves similar to basal ones but smaller. Inflorescences cymose, umbelliform, or sometimes 1-flowered; bracts leaflike, not involucral. Flowers radially symmetric, bisexual. Sepals 5, spreading. Petals 5, erect to suberect, usually smaller than sepals, base usually prolonged into a spur. Stamens numerous; filaments linear-filiform, 1-veined. Staminodes ca. 7, membranous. Pistils (4)or 5(--10); style ca. 1/2 as long as ovary; ovules numerous. Follicles narrowly cylindric, prominently veined; styles persistent. Seeds numerous, black, narrowly obovoid, smooth.

About 70 species: temperate regions of the N hemisphere; 13 species (four endemic) in China.

(Authors: Fu Dezhi; Orbélia R. Robinson)