Herbs annual. Trichomes absent. Stems erect, simple at base, paniculately branched above. Basal leaves petiolate, not rosulate, 1-3-pinnatisect. Cauline leaves attenuate or auriculate at base, subentire, dentate, pinnatifid, or pinnatisect. Racemes numerous flowered, ebracteate, elongated considerably in fruit; rachis flexuous. Fruiting pedicels stout, divaricate. Sepals narrowly oblong, united, rupturing basally at anthesis, unequal, base of lateral pair strongly saccate, margin membranous. Petals white or pink; blade linear or linear-lanceolate, apex subacute; claw subequaling sepals. Stamens 6, tetradynamous; filaments not dilated at base, filiform; anthers oblong, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands 2, lateral, ringlike; median glands absent. Ovules 2 per ovary, subapical. Fruit indehiscent, samaroid silicles, transversely oblong or ovoid, 1-seeded, thin walled, with woody and coarsely reticulate venation, angustiseptate, sessile, transversely 2-winged, 2-16-spined; wings prominent, longer or shorter than main part of fruit, with 3-20 subparallel veins extending full length; spines often unequal in length, at least some subparallel to pedicel, those on the seed-bearing fruit half longer; replum and valves margin united into a longitudinal vein; septum complete; style absent, obsolete, or conical and to 5 mm; stigma capitate, entire, long papillate. Seeds 1, wingless, oblong, plump; seed coat smooth, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent or obliquely so.

Three species: China, Mongolia, adjacent Russia; two species (one endemic) in China.