Annuals, biennials, or perennials [shrubs]; eglandular. Trichomes absent or simple. Cauline leaves petiolate or sessile; blade base auriculate or not, margins entire, dentate, serrate, or pinnately lobed. Racemes usually ebracteate, often elongated in fruit. Flowers actinomorphic; sepals erect, ascending, or spreading, lateral pair saccate or not basally; petals white, cream, yellow, pink, lilac, lavender, or purple, claw present, often distinct; filaments unappendaged, not winged; pollen 3-colpate. Fruits silicles or siliques, dehiscent or indehiscent, usually segmented, usually latiseptate or terete (subterete or 4-angled in Erucastrum) [angustiseptate]; ovules (1-)2-276[-numerous] per ovary; style usually distinct (absent in Cakile, obscure in Carrichtera, obsolete in Eruca); stigma entire or strongly 2-lobed (sometimes slightly 2-lobed in Cakile). Seeds biseriate, uniseriate, or aseriate; cotyledons usually conduplicate, rarely accumbent or incumbent (in Cakile).

Genera 46, species ca. 245 (13 genera, 28 species in the flora): North America, Eurasia, n Africa; introduced widely.