Perennials or, rarely, biennials; (sexual or apomictic, caudex usually present, rarely absent); not scapose; usually glabrous or pubescent, rarely hirsute or hispid, trichomes simple or branched, 2-14-rayed, sometimes dendritic, not stellate. Stems erect, ascending, or decumbent, unbranched or branched distally. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or sessile; basal rosulate or not, petiolate, blade margins usually entire or dentate, rarely lyrate-pinnatifid; cauline usually sessile, rarely shortly petiolate, blade (base sometimes auriculate or sagittate), margins entire or dentate. Racemes (sometimes paniculate), often elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels erect, ascending, divaricate, or reflexed (secund or not), slender. Flowers: sepals ovate or oblong, (lateral pair slightly saccate or not basally, margins membranous); petals usually white, pink, lavender, or purple, rarely yellowish, red, or magenta, spatulate or oblanceolate, (claw shorter than sepals or undifferentiated from blade, apex obtuse); stamens tetradynamous; filaments not dilated basally; anthers ovate or oblong, (apex obtuse), [pollen ellipsoid (sexual plants) or spheroid (apomictic)]; nectar glands confluent, subtending bases of stamens, lateral glands semi-annular or annular. Fruits usually sessile, rarely shortly stipitate, usually linear, rarely oblong or lanceolate, straight or falcate, smooth or torulose; valves (papery), each with obscure or prominent midvein, usually glabrous, rarely pubescent; replum (visible), rounded; septum complete, (membranous, veinless); ovules 8-250 per ovary; (style sometimes obsolete); stigma capitate. Seeds usually uniseriate or sub-biseriate, rarely biseriate, flattened, winged, not winged, or margined, oblong or orbicular; seed coat (usually smooth or minutely reticulate, rarely papillate), not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent.
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