A genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Saxifragaceae, native to central Asia, from Afghanistan to China and the Himalayan region. They are evergreen perennial plants with a spirally arranged rosette of leaves 6-35 cm long and 4-15 cm broad, and pink flowers produced in a cyme.
The leaves are leathery, look like a heart, and often have wavy or saw-toothed edges. For most of the year, the leaves have a glossy green color, but in cooler climates, they turn red or bronze in the fall. The flowers grow on a stem similar in color to a rhubarb stalk and most varieties have cone-shaped flowers in varying shades of pink. These can range from almost white to ruby red and purple.
The common name for Bergenia is pigsqueak due to the sound produced when two leaves are rubbed together.
