Cochlearia

Annuals, biennials, or, rarely, perennials; not scapose. Stems erect or decumbent, unbranched or branched. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or sessile; basal rosulate or not, petiolate, blade margins usually entire, repand, or dentate, rarely sinuate-dentate; cauline petiolate or sessile, blade (base auriculate or not), margins entire, repand, or dentate. Racemes (corymbose), slightly to greatly elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels erect, divaricate, or ascending, slender. Flowers: sepals ovate or oblong; petals oblanceolate or spatulate, [oblong, lingulate, elliptic], claw not differentiated from blade; stamens subequal or slightly tetradynamous; filaments not dilated basally; anthers ovate; nectar glands lateral, 1 on each side lateral stamens. Fruits sessile, ovoid, ellipsoid, obovoid, orbicular, ovoid-orbicular, or elliptic to oblong, [sub]terete or angustiseptate; valves each with distinct midvein (sometimes inflated); replum rounded; septum complete, fenestrate, or absent; ovules [5-]8-14[-32] per ovary; stigma capitate. Seeds plump, not winged, ovoid-oblong or ovoid to subglobose [ellipsoid]; seed coat (smooth or papillose), not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent, rarely incumbent. x = 6, 7.