Annuals; not scapose; (glaucous), glabrous. Stems erect, branched distally. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or sessile; basal (soon withered), not rosulate, petiolate, blade margins pinnatifid, runcinate, sinuate, or dentate; cauline blade (base auriculate, sagittate, or amplexicaul), margins entire or denticulate. Racemes (corymbose, several-flowered), considerably elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels appressed to rachis, stout. Flowers: sepals oblong to ovate, lateral pair subsaccate basally; petals oblong to oblanceolate, (slightly longer than sepals), claw undifferentiated from blade, (apex obtuse); stamens tetradynamous; filaments not dilated basally; anthers oblong, (apex obtuse); nectar glands (4) lateral, and (2) median (sometimes obscurely confluent with lateral). Fruits silicles, sessile, obpyriform to clavate-obcordiform, (woody, broadest distal to middle), slightly angustiseptate; (seed-bearing locule basal, 1 (or 2)-seeded, distal 2 locules seedless); replum rounded; ovules 2 per ovary; style distinct, (flattened, triangular); stigma capitate. Seeds plump, not winged, oblong to ovoid; seed coat not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent. x = 7.

Sep erect, the outer oblong, the inner ovate; pet yellow, narrowly spatulate; glands confluent, forming a ring around the base of the stamens; ovary subcylindric, with 1 ovule per locule; style elongate; fr indehiscent, corky, conic-obovoid, flattened, truncate, tipped with the stout 4-angled style, enclosing the single seed in the center near the base, bearing on each side distally an inflated hollow appendage; herbs with sessile, clasping lvs and elongate racemes. Monospecific.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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