Herbs annual, often glaucous above. Trichomes absent. Stems erect or ascending, sometimes prostrate. Basal leaves petiolate, somewhat fleshy, rosulate or not, often withered by flowering, simple, entire or rarely toothed or pinnatifid. Cauline leaves shortly petiolate or sessile, attenuate and not auriculate, auriculate, sagittate, or amplexicaul at base, entire or rarely obscurely dentate. Racemes few to several flowered, ebracteate. Fruiting pedicels ascending or divaricate. Sepals ovate or oblong, erect, base of lateral pair not saccate. Petals white, longer or shorter than sepals, rarely absent; blade obovate or oblanceolate, apex obtuse; claw obscurely differentiated from blade. Stamens 6, slightly tetradynamous; filaments not dilated at base; anthers ovate or oblong, apex obtuse or apiculate. Median glands absent; lateral glands 1 on each side of lateral stamen. Ovules 15-90 per ovary. Fruit dehiscent siliques, linear, terete or slightly latiseptate, sessile or rarely shortly stipitate; valves with a distinct midvein, glabrous, torulose; replum rounded; septum complete; style obsolete or rarely to 0.6 mm; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds uniseriate or biseriate, wingless, oblong or broadly ovate, plump or slightly flattened; seed coat minutely reticulate, mucilaginous or not when wetted; cotyledons incumbent.

Three species: saline habitats from SW to E Asia, one species disjunct in North America; three species in China.