Annual or perennial herbs, glabrous or hairy with eglandular or glandular simple hairs, erect or suberect to spreading, branched mostly from the base. Leaves deeply pinnatifid to entire; basal often rosulate,± petiolate, upper subsessile or sessile. Racemes lax in fruit, sometime reduced with 1-flowered scapes, ebracteate. Flowers often showy, mediocre or large, purple, pink, lilac or yellow, rarely whitish; pedicel short or long in fruit, ± ascending, often slightly thickened above. Sepals erect, inner saccate at base. Petals about twice as long as the sepals, spathulate-oblong, clawed, apex ± emarginate. Stamen 6; filaments not appendaged; anthers oblong, obtuse. Lateral nectar glands usually in pairs, pyramidate or semi-annular; middle glands absent. Ovary linear, usually with irregular margins, bilocular, 8-26-ovuled; style long with short, bilobed stigma. Siliquae linear, subcylindrical, torulose or moniliform, ± beaked, usually transversely breaking into several 2-seeded parts, rarely irregularly dehiscent; septum membranous, breaking away with seeded parts, leaving the replum intact; seeds few to many, subglobose, not winged.