Small shrubby herbs, often woody below, and intricately branched, canescent or tomentose with branched, stellate somewhat appressed hairs. Leaves orbicular to ovate-spathulate or ovate-oblong, petiolate; basal rosulate, entire to sparsely and shallowly broadly toothed; upper oblong, ovate, stalked to sessile, toothed to subentire. Racemes few-flowered, short. Flowers large, handsome, pink or rose; pedicels short, thickened in fruit, suberect. Sepals long, erect, not or slightly saccate at base, with a narrow membranous margin. Petals nearly twice as long as the sepals, obovate-oblong, with long claw. Stamens 6, outer 2 much shorter, filaments linear; anthers long, linear, acute. Lateral nectar glands in pairs; middle glands absent. Ovary oblong, terete, with 2 small processes below the large, emarginate stigma on valves apex, many ovuled; style indistinct, minute. Siliquae short, quadrangular, subtorulose, canescent, bilocular, late or tardily dehiscent, with 2 blunt horns (processes) near the apex (below the stigma); valves with 6-8 depressions towards the inner side, with a prominent midrib ending in the apical process; septum somewhat rigid, membranous, yellowish; seeds small, suborbicular, compressed.

About 7 species, chiefly African and W. Asian; 2 recorded for Pakistan.

It is a new record for our area, whose eastern most limits now extend to Pakistan. It looks very similar to Matthiola but fruits different, with 2 horn-like appendages at the apex of the valves and below the stigma. Some species of Matthiola also have horn-like appendages but from the stigmatic lobes.

Lower Taxa

• Diceratella canescens (Boiss.) Boiss.
• Diceratella floccosa (Boiss.) Boiss.

Related Synonym(s):

• Diceratium canescens Boiss. = Diceratella canescens (Boiss.) Boiss.
• Diceratium floccosum Boiss. = Diceratella floccosa (Boiss.) Boiss.
• Matthiola dentate Parsa = Diceratella canescens (Boiss.) Boiss.