Annuals, biennials, or perennials [shrubs]; eglandular. Trichomes absent or simple. Cauline leaves petiolate or sessile; blade base auriculate or not, margins entire, dentate, serrate, or pinnately lobed. Racemes usually ebracteate, often elongated in fruit. Flowers actinomorphic; sepals erect, ascending, or spreading, lateral pair saccate or not basally; petals white, cream, yellow, pink, lilac, lavender, or purple, claw present, often distinct; filaments unappendaged, not winged; pollen 3-colpate. Fruits silicles or siliques, dehiscent or indehiscent, usually segmented, usually latiseptate or terete (subterete or 4-angled in Erucastrum) [angustiseptate]; ovules (1–)2–276[–numerous] per ovary; style usually distinct (absent in Cakile, obscure in Carrichtera, obsolete in Eruca); stigma entire or strongly 2-lobed (sometimes slightly 2-lobed in Cakile). Seeds biseriate, uniseriate, or aseriate; cotyledons usually conduplicate, rarely accumbent or incumbent (in Cakile).
Distribution
North America, Eurasia, n Africa, introduced widely.
Discussion
Genera 46, species ca. 245 (13 genera, 28 species in the flora).
The generic boundaries in Brassiceae are largely artificial, and the number of genera may be substantially reduced.
Selected References
None.