Annual foetid herb, with yellow latex. Leaves bi-or tripinnate; lower petiolate, upper sessile. Inflorescences solitary axillary, often with large and showy flowers. Sepals 2, free, caducous, imbricate. Petals 4, crumpled in bud, red or violet, broadly obovate, deciduous. Stamens numerous with usually subulate or dilated filaments; anthers oblong extrorse. Ovary linear-cylindrical, unilocular, many ovuled; style short; stigmas (2-) 3-4, capitate. Fruit a siliqua-like capsule, linear-cylindrical, unilocular, many seeded, setose to glabrous, dehiscing to the base by 3-4 valves. Seeds small, reniform, unappendaged, often pitted or finely reticulated.
A small genus of 3 species only of S.W. Europe, Asia and N. Africa; represented by 2 species in West Pakistan.
