Herbs, perennial, epipetric, epiphytic, or terrestrial, rhizomatous, stemmed or stemless. Stems simple, rarely branched. Leaves few to many, basal or on stem and opposite or rarely alternate, crowded near apex or spread along stem, equal to unequal in a pair; leaf blade base cuneate to attenuate or cordate, rarely peltate. Inflorescences lax, axillary, sometimes subumbel-like, 1- to many-flowered cymes; bracts 2 or rarely 3, opposite, rarely whorled. Calyx actinomorphic, 5-sect from base, rarely 5-lobed from middle; segments equal, rarely unequal. Corolla blue, purple, to red or orange to white, usually spotted within, zygomorphic, inside glabrous to pubescent or glandular puberulent; tube narrowly campanulate, gibbous abaxially, 2-3 X longer than limb, (0.7-)1-2(-2.6) cm in diam.; limb 2-lipped; adaxial lip 2-lobed, rarely 2-sect from base, 3 X to slightly shorter than abaxial lip; abaxial lip 3-lobed, lobes equal or subequal, apex obtuse to rounded, truncate, or acute. Stamens 4, adnate to corolla tube near base, rarely to near or above middle, included; anthers basifixed, coherent in pairs at apex, thecae divergent, not confluent or confluent at apex, dehiscing longitudinally; connective not projecting; staminode 1 or absent, adnate to adaxial side of corolla tube. Disc ringlike. Ovary linear to narrowly oblong, 1-loculed; placentas 2, parietal, projecting inward, 2-cleft. Stigmas 2, equal, 2-lipped, undivided. Capsule straight in relation to pedicel, narrowly lanceolate-oblong to oblanceolate, much longer than calyx, dehiscing loculicidally to base; valves 2, straight, not twisted. Seeds unappendaged.

About 22 species: Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Sikkim, Vietnam; 21 species in China.

The delimitations of Briggsia and Loxostigma are somewhat problematic. Three species in this treatment (B. kurzii, B. longicaulis, and B. dongxingensis) are rather unlike others, and Weitzman and Skog believe that they probably belong in Loxostigma. Arguments by Burtt (Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 34: 101-106. 1975), which appeared before the publication of B. longicaulis, and B. dongxingensis, appear to support this placement. Loxostigma is somewhat intermediate between Briggsia and Lysionotus, which are generally placed in different tribes. These three species of Briggsia have stems and herbaceous leaves as in Loxostigma, and only the lack of seed appendages supports their placement in Briggsia.