Herbs perennial with a caudex terminated by petiolar remains of previous years. Trichomes simple. Stems erect, simple basally, branched apically. Basal leaves petiolate, rosulate, simple, pinnately lobed or 1-3-pinnatisect, rarely palmately lobed. Cauline leaves petiolate or sessile, often auriculate or amplexicaul at base, sinuate, pinnately lobed, or pinnatisect. Racemes ebracteate, in panicles, elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels slender or stout, ascending, divaricate, or reflexed. Sepals oblong, deciduous, base of lateral pair not saccate, margin membranous. Petals yellow, creamy white, pink, or deep purple, rarely absent; blade obovate, oblong, oblanceolate, or oblong-linear, entire or rarely 3(-5)-toothed; claw absent or much shorter than sepals. Stamens 6 or (8-)12-16(-24), slightly tetradynamous or equal in length; filaments dilated at base; anthers oblong or linear, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands confluent around bases of all stamens; median glands present. Ovules 2 per ovary. Fruit indehiscent, schizocarpic, didymous, angustiseptate silicles, sessile or shortly stipitate; valves (mericarps) oblong, obovate, or orbicular, 1-seeded, leathery, smooth, broadly winged, keeled, glabrous; replum rounded; septum complete, thickened, opaque, veinless; style obsolete, rarely to 0.5 mm; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds wingless, broadly ovate or subreniform, strongly flattened; seed coat smooth, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent.

Nine species: C Asia, Himalayas; three species in China.