Annuals, biennials, or perennials; eglandular. Trichomes absent or simple. Cauline leaves (rarely absent), usually petiolate, sometimes sessile; blade (simple or compound), base auriculate or not, margins entire or dentate to pinnately lobed. Racemes usually ebracteate (Selenia bracteate throughout), often elongated in fruit. Flowers actinomorphic; sepals erect to spreading or ascending, lateral pair seldom saccate basally; petals white, yellow, pink, lilac, or purple, claw usually present, rarely absent, often distinct; filaments unappendaged, not winged; pollen 3-colpate. Fruits silicles or siliques, dehiscent, unsegmented, terete, 4-angled, or latiseptate, rarely angustiseptate; ovules 4–300[–numerous] per ovary; style distinct or obsolete (absent in Subularia); stigma usually entire. Seeds biseriate or uniseriate; cotyledons usually accumbent, sometimes incumbent.
Distribution
Nearly worldwide.
Discussion
Genera 12, species ca. 335 (10 genera, 85 species in the flora).
The assignment of Subularia to Cardamineae is provisional and based solely on morphology.
Selected References
None.