Herbs annual or biennial, rarely perennial with a caudex. Trichomes simple and stalked, 1- or 2-forked, sometimes stellate. Stems erect or ascending. Basal leaves rosulate or not, entire or dentate, rarely pinnately lobed. Cauline leaves sessile or subsessile, usually auriculate or sagittate, entire, dentate, or rarely pinnately lobed, rarely absent. Racemes several to many flowered, ebracteate or bracteate. Fruiting pedicels erect, ascending, or divaricate. Sepals oblong, erect, pubescent, base of lateral pair not saccate. Petals white, pink, or purple, longer than sepals; blade spatulate, rounded; claw obscurely distinct from blade. Stamens 6, erect, slightly tetradynamous; filaments not dilated at base; anthers ovate or oblong, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands confluent and subtending bases of filament. Ovules (30-)40-120(-150) per ovary. Fruit dehiscent siliques, linear, terete or somewhat 4-angled, rarely latiseptate, sessile or subsessile; valves with a distinct midvein, glabrous or rarely pubescent, smooth or torulose; replum rounded; septum complete; style to 1 mm; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds uniseriate, wingless, oblong, plump; seed coat minutely reticulate, mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent.

Nine species: C and SW Asia, Himalayas, Mongolia, Russia; six species in China.