Annual or biennial, usually branched from the base, glabrous or hairy with simple hairs. Leaves pinnatisect. Racemes ebracteate, becoming lax in fruit. Flowers medium size, violet or whitish; pedicel short, + appressed to stem and somewhat thickened in fruit. Sepals erect, subequal, linear, subobtuse, not saccate at the base. Petals obovate with a long, thin claw, densely veined, apex truncate. Stamens 6; filaments linear. Nectar glands minute, lateral subcom¬pressed or scale-like, middle compressed, semiglobose or somewhat prismatic. Ovary cylindrical, sessile, 2-parted with both the parts fertile; lower 1-8-ovuled; upper somewhat broadened below and 1-4-ovuled; stigma depressed-capitate. Siliquae biarticulated, breaking into two parts when mature; upper part 1-3-seeded, without septum, ovoid below, beaked above; lower part 6-8-seeded, sub-cylindrical, bilocular, dehiscent with a complete septum; valves 3-5 parallel veined; seeds oblong, ellipsoid or subglobose, subcompressed, pale brown; cotyledons various, straight to loosely inrolled, radicle incumbent.
About 6 species, mostly in the E. Mediterranean region; only one recorded from our area.