Herbs annual or biennial. Trichomes simple, mixed with short-stalked, forked smaller ones. Stems simple basally, branched above, base often hirsute with simple trichomes. Basal leaves petiolate or subsessile, not rosulate, simple, entire or toothed, rarely lobed, withered by flowering. Cauline leaves sessile, auriculate or sagittate at base, entire or dentate. Racemes ebracteate, elongated considerably in fruit. Fruiting pedicels slender, divaricate. Sepals oblong or ovate, erect, base of lateral pair not saccate. Petals yellow or rarely white, spatulate, longer than sepals, apex obtuse. Stamens 6, in 3 pairs of unequal length; filaments not dilated at base; anthers ovate or oblong, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands 4, 1 on each side of lateral stamen; median glands absent. Ovules 8-25 per ovary. Fruit dehiscent silicles or rarely siliques, obpyriform, obovoid, or rarely linear, shortly stipitate; valves leathery, often with a prominent midvein, smooth, margins of 2 valves flattened and connate, apex abruptly caudate and extending 1-2 mm into style; replum rounded, concealed by connate margins of valves; septum complete; style 1.5-4 mm; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds biseriate or rarely uniseriate, wingless or narrowly margined, oblong, plump or slightly flattened; seed coat minutely reticulate, copiously mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent or rarely accumbent.

Six or seven species: SW Asia and S Europe; two species in China.