Herbaceous, glabrous perennials with taproots surmounted by short, close-set stems; sometimes rhizomatous; leaves in rosettes, sometimes invested with remains of older leaves at the base; plants of each species either female* or with male and hermaphrodite flowers together, female plants fewer than male/hermaphrodites and occurring quite frequently in some species, rarely in others. Leaves once-pinnate, sometimes twice-pinnate or ternate-pinnate, mostly sub-fleshy, sometimes fleshy or membranous; leaflets mostly ovate, rhomboid or flabellate, acute to rounded, simple to pinnatifid or pinnate, glaucous on both surfaces, only on the under surface or not glaucous, stornata equally abundant on both surfaces or restricted to the lower surface, margins serrate, dentate or crenate, leaflets sessile or with short, less commonly long petiolules, mid-veins obscure; petioles more or less terete, not grooved or narrowly grooved adaxially; sheath edges converging upwards and meeting or remaining slightly separated, the membranous marginal wings of the sheath tapering upwards or remaining broad, then narrowing abruptly; rachis intervals narrowly grooved adaxially. Inflorescences axillary, each with a terminal compound umbel and usually a few reduced cauline leaves, each of which may subtend an additional compound umbel; female inflorescences tending to be smaller than male/hermaphrodite; primary bracts at the base of each compound umbel few to several, narrow-linear, free in some species, free or partly fused in others; simple umbels few to many per compound umbel; secondary bracts at the base of each simple umbel few to several, narrowlinear, free or partly fused; flowers few to many per simple umbel, white; sepals much smaller than petals, but quite distinct, variable in size in each flower; petals of hermaphrodite flowers larger than those of females and with longer and more strongly indexed tips; minute rudimentary staminodes present in female flowers; styles mostly long and slender, divergent, stylopodia low-conic; mericarps with 5 acute to rounded ribs, lateral ribs enlarging into wings at fruiting stage in some species; oil tubes solitary in the intervals, 2 on the commissure, and solitary in the ribs, those in the intervals and on the commissure large and, at fruiting stage, flattened tangentially, those in the ribs minute and not flattened. *Female plants have not been discovered in G. trifoliolatum or in three of the four varieties of G. enysii.

2n = 22