Annuals; not scapose; pubescent [glabrous], trichomes simple and stalked, forked or dendritic. Stems erect or ascending, unbranched or branched. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or subsessile; basal not rosulate, petiolate, blade margins entire, dentate, or pinnatifid; cauline petiolate or subsessile, blade margins usually entire or dentate, rarely sinuate [lobed]. Racemes (few- to several-flowered), considerably elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels ascending or divaricate, stout [slender] (about equal to fruits). Flowers: sepals narrowly oblong [ovate], pubescent; petals pink or purple [rarely white], oblanceolate [spatulate, oblong], (longer than sepals), claw undifferentiated from blade, (apex obtuse or rounded); stamens tetradynamous, (erect); filaments not dilated basally [sometimes median 4 connate in 2 pairs]; anthers oblong [ovate], (apiculate or not); nectar glands (4), lateral, 1 on each side of lateral stamen, median glands absent. Fruits siliques, subsessile, linear, smooth [torulose], 4-angled [terete]; valves each with obscure [prominent] midvein, pubescent or glabrous; replum rounded; septum complete; ovules 40–80 per ovary; style obsolete; stigma conical, 2-lobed (lobes connivent or connate, opposite replum). Seeds uniseriate, plump or slightly flattened, not winged, oblong [ovate]; seed coat (reticulate), not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent. x = 7.

Distribution

Introduced; Europe, c, w Asia, n Africa.

Discussion

Species 20 (1 in the flora).

Selected References

Botschantzev, V. P. 1972b. The genus Strigosella Boiss. and its relation to the genus Malcolmia R. Br. (Cruciferae). Bot. Zhurn. (Moscow & Leningrad) 57: 1033–1046.

Lower Taxa

Strigosella africana