Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Annual herbs, pubescent with simple and stellate hairs.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Primarily in a basal rosette, often with a few reduced cauline leaves. Margins of basal leaves lyrate–pinnatifid. cauline leaf margins dentate to entire. Cauline leaves sessile and clasping the stem. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in usually bractless, in terminal racemes. Flowers bisexual (perfect), actinomorphic or rarely slightly irregular, small. Calyx of 4 sepals, deciduous, erect, green, sometimes whitish and purple–tinged toward the apex. Corolla of 4 petals, white, pink, or tinged yellow, 1–5 mm long, usually with an elongate claw. Stamens (2–4)6(–16), tetradynamous, the inner 4 usually in pairs, sometimes connate at base in pairs; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, 2(4?)-carpellate, usually 2-celled by means of a false, but usually complete septum, rarely 1-celled, sessile or rarely stipitate; ovules 1 to numerous, borne on parietal placentas on replum margin at periphery of ovary wall, campylotropous or occasionally anatropous; style 1 distinct; stigma minute, capitate.

Fruit: Silicle; triangular to obcordate; strongly flattened at right angles to the septum. Seeds up to 12 per cell; oblong; endosperm essentially absent.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

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