Arpitium Necker & Sweet.

Herbs, perennial. Taproot stout, usually branched. Stem single or multicipital, usually short, sometimes acaulescent, base densely clothed with fibrous remnant sheaths. Basal leaves 2–3-pinnate or ternate-2–3-pinnate. Umbels compound, terminal sessile, laterals pedunculate; bracts several, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate; rays 5–40; bracteoles lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, entire or 1–2-pinnate. Calyx teeth prominent, triangular or lanceolate. Petals white or purple, oblong-ovate or cordate-ovate, base cuneate or shortly clawed, apex notched with small incurved lobule. Stylopodium conic or subglobose; styles longer than stylopodium. Fruit oblong-ovoid, ovoid or broadly ovoid, dorsally compressed; ribs all winged, subequal; vittae 1(–2) in each furrow, 2(–4) or absent on commissure. Seed face plane.

About six species: Asia, Europe; five species (four endemic) in China.

(Authors: Pu Fading (溥发鼎 Pu Fa-ting); Mark F. Watson)