Annual, biannual or perennial herbs with simple, forked or stellate hairs. Leaves simple, entire or lobed to pinnatifid. Inflorescence a raceme. Sepals erect, sometimes dimorphic; petals clawed, white, pink or purple; stamens 6. Fruit elongate (more than three times as long as broad), linear, terete or quadrangular, dehiscent; style short, stigma 2-lobed, lobes connivent; valves with or without a distinct mid-vein, often pilose; seeds in 1 or 2 rows per locule.
About 35 species from Asia and the Mediterranean; 2 species naturalised in Australia.
