Dentaria Linnaeus; Loxostemon J. D. Hooker & Thomson; Sphaerotorrhiza (O. E. Schulz) Khokhrjakov.

Herbs annual, biennial, or rhizomatous or tuberous perennial. Trichomes absent or simple. Stems erect or prostrate, leafy or rarely leafless and plant scapose. Basal leaves petiolate, rosulate or not, simple and entire, toothed, or 1-3-pinnatisect, or palmately lobed, sometimes trifoliolate, pinnately, palmately, or bipinnately compound. Cauline leaves alternate, (rarely opposite or whorled), simple or compound as basal leaves, petiolate or sessile and base cuneate, attenuate, auriculate, or sagittate, margin entire, dentate, or variously lobed. Racemes ebracteate or rarely bracteate throughout or only basally, corymbose or in panicles, elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels slender or thickened, erect, divaricate, or reflexed. Sepals ovate or oblong, base of lateral pair saccate or not, margin often membranous. Petals white, pink, purple, or violet, never yellow, rarely absent; blade obovate, spatulate, oblong, or oblanceolate, apex obtuse or emarginate; claw absent or strongly differentiated from blade, longer or shorter than sepals. Stamens 6 and tetradynamous, rarely 4 and equal in length; anthers ovate, oblong, or linear, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands confluent and subtending bases of all stamens; median glands 2 or rarely 4 or absent; lateral glands annular or semiannular. Ovules 4-50 per ovary. Fruit dehiscent siliques, linear or rarely narrowly oblong or narrowly lanceolate, latiseptate, sessile; valves papery, not veined, glabrous (or very rarely hairy), smooth or torulose, dehiscing elastically acropetally, spirally or circinately coiled; replum strongly flattened; septum complete, membranous, translucent; style distinct or rarely obsolete; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds uniseriate, wingless, rarely margined or winged, oblong or ovate, flattened; seed coat smooth, minutely reticulate, colliculate, or rugose; mucilaginous or not when wetted; cotyledons accumbent or very rarely incumbent.

About 200 species: worldwide; 48 species (24 endemic, one introduced) in China.