Herbs perennial, forming mats or cushions, lacking basal bulbils (in China). Leaves alternate; petiole scarcely differentiated (in China); leaf blade herbaceous, lacking chalk glands and crystals, margin lobed or entire. Flowering stem leafy; inflorescence cymose or flower solitary. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, 5-merous. Petals white, not callose. Filaments subulate to linear; pollen 2-nucleate, exine tectum smooth. Carpels connate for most of placental region, dehiscing distally in fruit; ovary inferior. Integuments 2.

About 75 species: primarily in Europe, mainly montane, also extending into Asia and North America; one species in China.