Herbs annual or perennial, rarely subshrubs. Trichomes absent or simple. Stems erect, often simple basally, much branched apically. Basal leaves long petiolate, rosulate or not, simple, dentate, lyrate, or pinnately lobed, often very large. Cauline leaves petiolate, similar to basal leaves. Racemes many flowered, usually lax, ebracteate, often in panicles, elongated considerably in fruit. Fruiting pedicels slender, erect or divaricate. Sepals ovate or oblong, ascending or spreading, not saccate. Petals white or rarely yellow, spreading or ascending, longer than sepals; blade obovate or oblong, apex obtuse; claw much shorter than sepals. Stamens 6, strongly tetradynamous; filaments not dilated at base; lateral pair filiform, wingless, unappendaged; median pairs winged and/or toothed, rarely filiform and toothless; anthers ovate or oblong, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands 4; median pair large, globose or oblong; lateral pair minute, intrastaminal, semiannular. Ovules 2 per ovary. Fruit indehiscent, nutletlike silicles, segmented; basal segment seedless, much shorter than terminal segment; distal segment 1-seeded, globose or ovoid, corky, terete or 4-angled, smooth, rugose, or reticulate; gynophore absent; replum and septum obsolete; style absent, obsolete, or rarely to 1 mm; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds wingless, oblong, pendulous on a basal funicle, plump; seed coat smooth, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons conduplicate.

About 35 species: Africa, Asia, Europe; one species in China.