This is a very small genus of woodland plants, one species from America and one from eastern Asia. The leaves are on short stems that emerge directly from the rhizome, and each leaf is divided more or less into two. Plants slowly increase to clumps, which can be divided with care. Otherwise propagation is by seed, which is produced in small quantities at best.

Jeffersonia diphylla is a fine plant for a woodland situation. It has twin leaves (it is known in its native America as twinleaf) and a slender stem holds a delicate white, eight-petalled flower in early summer.