Plants not scapose; (usually glaucous). Stems erect, unbranched or branched proximally. Leaves basal and cauline; subsessile or sessile; basal not rosulate, subsessile, blade margins usually entire; cauline blade (base cordate-amplexicaul or, rarely, auriculate), margins usually entire, rarely crenulate. Racemes (corymbose, several-flowered). Fruiting pedicels ascending, stout (almost as thick as fruit, or, rarely, much narrower). Flowers: sepals oblong; petals usually narrowly obovate, rarely oblanceolate, claw differentiated from blade [undifferentiated], (apex obtuse); stamens slightly tetradynamous; filaments not dilated, slender; anthers oblong (base slightly sagittate); nectar glands lateral, median glands often absent. Fruits sessile, linear, torulose, 4-angled or terete; valves each with prominent midvein; replum rounded; septum complete; stigmas capitate-flattened, entire. Seeds not winged, oblong [ellipsoid]; seed coat (papillose), copiously mucilaginous (granular) when wetted; cotyledons incumbent. x = 7 [9].

Sep erect, saccate at base; pet long-clawed, bright yellow to nearly white; short stamens subtended by a U -shaped gland; ovary cylindric, gradually tapering to the short style; ovules many; stigma capitate; fr elongate, slender, many- seeded, terete or 4-angled, tapering to a short beak; seeds in 1 row in each locule, oblong, granular-roughened; annual or biennial glabrous herbs, often glaucous; lvs entire, at least the upper cordate-clasping. 6, w. Eurasia, Mediterranean.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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