Herbs perennial, stemless, with short rhizomes. Leaves all basal, simple, petiolate, leaf blade undivided, indistinctly 3-lobed, or rarely 3-partite, margin crenate or entire, 3--5-veined. Inflorescence a solitary, scapose, terminal flower, rarely a 2- or 3-flowered monochasium. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic. Sepals 5--8, enlarged after flowering, green, persistent or rarely deciduous. Petals 5--19, yellow, oblong, shortly clawed, with a small nectary pit above base. Stamens numerous; filaments narrowly linear; anthers ellipsoid or oblong. Carpels numerous, spirally arranged on a convex receptacle; ovule 1 per carpel, erect. Style shorter than ovary; stigmatic surface adaxial. Aggregate fruit broadly ovoid; achenes ± bilaterally compressed, narrowly rhombic or subfusiform, longitudinally 1- or more veined on each side, with a persistent style at apex.

Oxygraphis is often included within Ranunculus .

Four species: Bhutan, China, India, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia; four species (two endemic) in China.

(Authors: Wang Wencai; Michio Tamura, Michael G. Gilbert)