Commonly known in English as snowbell, includes about 15 species in the flowering plant family Primulaceae, native to European mountains, from the Pyrenees, the Apennines, the Alps, the Carpathians and the Balkans. They grow in woods, damp pastures and rocky landscapes from 500-3,000 m above sea level, usually in hollows which hold snow long into the summer.

They typically have a basal rosette of simple, orbicular leaves 1–5 cm wide, with the flower stalks arising from the centre of the rosette, each stalk bearing 1-6 white to violet flowers.

The species are similar to each other and it is nearly impossible to identify images. Subtle differences are observable using a magnifying glass.