Annual or biennial herbs, branched, usually glabrous. Leaves oblanceolate or oblong-elliptic, sinuate-dentate to subentire; basal narrowed below; upper usually sessile, cuneate to auricled (amplexicaul) at base. Racemes few to many flowered, lax in fruit. Flowers small, white or pale pink; pedicels filiform, elongated, deflexed, not thickened. Sepals slightly or not saccate at base, suberect. Petals c. twice as long as the sepals, spathulate, apex rounded. Stamens 6; filaments not appendaged; anthers short, obtuse. Lateral nectar glands annular, apparently opened towards the outer side; middle present, joining the laterals. Ovary elliptic-terete, 2-4 (-6)-ovuled; stigma capitate, short, on thickened short style. Fruit quadrangular-ellipsoid or oblong-ellipsoid, often constricted in the middle and slightly curved, indehiscent but often breaking transversely into 2 halves or between the seeds; valves thick, coriaceous; seeds (1-) 2-3 only, usually 1 mature in each superimposed cells.