Herbs annual, glabrous or puberulent. Trichomes unicellular, eglandular, simple, papillate. Stems erect, many branched above base. Basal leaves withered early, not rosulate. Cauline leaves sessile, attenuate and not auriculate at base, entire, dentate, sinuate, or rarely pinnatifid. Racemes several flowered, lax, ebracteate, elongated considerably in fruit. Fruiting pedicels slender, divaricate or reflexed, articulate and detached at base. Sepals narrowly oblong, deciduous, suberect, base of lateral pair subsaccate, margin membranous. Petals white or lavender, longer than sepals; blade linear, apex obtuse; claw undifferentiated. Stamens 6, strongly tetradynamous; filaments slightly dilated at base; anthers oblong, obtuse at apex, lateral pair sterile. Nectar glands 2, lateral, semiannular; median glands absent. Ovules 1 per ovary. Fruit indehiscent, 1-seeded, S-shaped siliques, with ellipsoid seed-bearing part and attenuate stipelike base, terete; valves woody, prominently veined, papillate, reticulate, or rugose, wingless; gynophore absent; replum rounded; septum absent; style beaklike, flattened, to 3 cm in fruit, persistent; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds wingless, narrowly oblong, plump; seed coat smooth, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent.

One species: C and SW Asia.