Plants usually herbs, sometimes shrublets or shrubs. Leaves alternate, basal leaves often in a rosette, without stipules, entore to variously divided. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; ovary superior; sepals 4, free; petals 4 (rarely absent), free; stamens usually 6, 4 long and 2 short, rarely 2 or 4, usually free; anthers dehiscing lengthwise. Fruit usually a 2-celled silique or silicle, sometimes a nutlet, loment, or other structure. Seeds virtually devoid of endosperm; cotyledons incumbent, acumbent, or variously folded.
There are about 340 genera and 3700 species in the BrassicaceaeAl-Shehbaz et al. (2006). It has its greatest diversity in Mediterranean area, west and central Asia, and parts of North America; it is comparatively poorly represented in the tropics.
