Herbs perennial, sometimes pulvinate, with well-developed, thick caudex covered with petioles of previous years. Trichomes absent or simple. Stems absent or rarely present and few leaved. Basal leaves petiolate, rosulate, simple, entire. Cauline leaves absent, if present then sessile, entire. Flowers solitary on long pedicels originating from center of rosette, rarely in few- to several-flowered, ebracteate racemes elongated slightly in fruit. Fruiting pedicels slender, erect or divaricate. Sepals oblong, free or rarely united, usually persistent, erect, equal, base of lateral pair not saccate, margin not membranous. Petals purple, blue, pink, or white, suborbicular, obovate, spatulate, or oblanceolate, apex obtuse or emarginate; claw subequaling or longer than sepals. Stamens 6; filaments not dilated at base; anthers oblong-linear, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands 2, lateral, often annular; median glands absent. Ovules 5-10 per ovary. Fruit dehiscent siliques or silicles, linear, oblong, ovate, or lanceolate, latiseptate, sessile, readily detached from pedicel; valves papery, reticulate veined, with a prominent midvein and marginal veins, glabrous or pubescent, smooth, margin angled, apex persistently united with replum; replum rounded, concealed by connate valve margin; septum complete or rarely perforated, membranous, translucent; style absent, obsolete, rarely to 1 mm; stigma capitate, entire or slightly 2-lobed, lobes not decurrent. Seeds uniseriate or biseriate, wingless, broadly ovate or suborbicular, flattened; seed coat reticulate, rugose, or papillate, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent.

Nine species: Bhutan, China, Sikkim; nine species (eight endemic) in China.