Annuals, biennials, or perennials [lianas, shrubs]; eglandular. Trichomes simple or absent. Cauline leaves petiolate or sessile; blade base auriculate or not, margins usually entire, dentate, or pinnately divided. Racemes ebracteate, elongated or not in fruit. Flowers actinomorphic; sepals ascending to spreading, lateral pair not saccate basally; petals white, yellow, pink, or purple [orange], claw usually present, sometimes absent, distinct; filaments unappendaged, not winged; pollen 3-colpate. Fruits silicles, usually dehiscent, unsegmented, usually angustiseptate, rarely terete; ovules 2(-4) per ovary; style distinct, obsolete, or absent; stigma entire or, rarely, 2-lobed. Seeds aseriate; cotyledons accumbent or incumbent.

Genera 4, species ca. 235 (1 genus, 42 species in the flora): nearly worldwide.

Lower Taxon

• Lepidium Linnaeus