Annuals, biennials, or perennials; eglandular. Trichomes absent or simple. Cauline leaves (rarely absent), usually petiolate, sometimes sessile; blade (simple or compound), base auriculate or not, margins entire or dentate to pinnately lobed. Racemes usually ebracteate (Selenia bracteate throughout), often elongated in fruit. Flowers actinomorphic; sepals erect to spreading or ascending, lateral pair seldom saccate basally; petals white, yellow, pink, lilac, or purple, claw usually present, rarely absent, often distinct; filaments unappendaged, not winged; pollen 3-colpate. Fruits silicles or siliques, dehiscent, unsegmented, terete, 4-angled, or latiseptate, rarely angustiseptate; ovules 4-300[-numerous] per ovary; style distinct or obsolete (absent in Subularia); stigma usually entire. Seeds biseriate or uniseriate; cotyledons usually accumbent, sometimes incumbent.

Genera 12, species ca. 335 (10 genera, 85 species in the flora): nearly worldwide.

Lower Taxa

• Armoracia P. Gaertner, B. Meyer & Scherbius
• Barbarea W. T. Aiton
• Cardamine Linnaeus
• Iodanthus (Torrey & A. Gray) Steudel
• Leavenworthia Torrey
• Nasturtium W. T. Aiton
• Planodes Greene
• Rorippa Scopoli
• Selenia Nuttall
• Subularia Linnaeus