Rhizomatous subacaulescent perennials. Leaves in a sub-basal rosette, petiolate to subsessile; lamina elliptic, oblanceolate or spathulate, serrate, pubescent to glabrate. Inflorescence a dense, spike-like raceme, borne on a scape-like peduncle; 1-4 bract-like leaves present just below inflorescence. Flowers pedicellate, bracteate, ebracteolate. Calyx lobes imbriacate in bud, narrowly lanceolate lanceolate-elliptic, acute. Corolla whitish, blue, or violet, shorter than calyx, ± regular wih 5 subequal lobes, glabrous outside, ciliate and glandular within. Stamens not didynamous. Filaments exserted, all glabrous. Anther cells divaricate. Capsule ovoid, ± deeply sulcate, septicidally dehiscent. Seeds consisting of an oblong, curved embyo enclosed in a large, very loose, reticulate, bladder-like testa with glistening alveolae. 

A monotypic genus in the alpine regions of the Himalaya, from Kashmir to Kumaon (Uttar Pradesh). The allopatric Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora (Pennell) Hong replaces Picrorhiza kurrooa in the wetter eastern Himalaya (Uttar Pradesh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan). It is distinguished by its oblanceolate calyx lobes, corolla longer than the calyx and strongly bilabiate, stamens slightly didynamous, and pollen grains with a partial, microreticulate tectum; see Hong (Opera Bot. 75, 1984) for discussion. Other species of Neopicrorhiza occur in Nepal, Bhutan and China.

In the APG III classification (2009) Picrorhiza is included in the expanded family Plantaginaceae.