Annual herbs, often small and tender, sparingly branched from the base, erect to prostrate, hairy with simple or branched, usually minute hairs. Basal leaves lyrate-pinnate or deeply dissected, lobes linear to large; cauline leaves usually few or none, variable. Racemes lax in fruit, not many flowered. Flowers small, white or pinkish; pedicels not thickened in fruit, often elongated. Sepals not saccate at base. Petals slightly to c. twice as long as the sepals. Nectar glands minute, Lateral ± annular, not angular, middle torose and joining the laterals, often slightly conical in between the stamen bases. Siliquae linear, 1-veined with subconvex valves; stigma short, depressed on short style; seeds not mucilaginous when wet; radicle incumbent.
About 5 species, mostly Himalayan and C. Asian; only 2 present in our area.
Hardly distinct from Arabidopsis Heynh., from which it differs only by its seeds not mucilaginous when wet. Similarly differs from Torularia (Coss.) Schulz by the technical character of presence of middle nectar glands only. However, a revaluation of the three genera is much needed.
