There are about 50 species of Geum, often known as avens, that occur in every continent (except Antarctica, of course). And there are lots of cultivated varieties. They are perennials, growing from rhizomes, so making good clumps reasonably quickly. They have rosettes of lobed leaves and loose clusters of saucer-shaped flowers in a range of colours in the red to yellow range, followed by decorative feathery seed heads.

Geum pyrenaicum is rather like a taller version of the well-known Geum montanum, has golden-yellow, cup-shaped flowers, usually one per stem but sometimes more. The leaves have a large terminal leaflet, and about five pairs of smaller ones.