AURINIA Desv., J. Bot. Agric. 3: 162 (1815).

Herbs perennial, tomentose, with simple or rarely branched caudex. Trichomes short-stalked to subessile 7–12-rayed stellate with non-appressed rays, these sometimes mixed with coarser simple and stalked forked trichomes. Multicellular glands absent. Stems erect to ascending, produced laterally from axils of basal leaves, often branched apically, leafy, not spiny. Basal leaves petiolate and petioles often grooved, rosulate, simple, entire, repand, dentate, sinuate, or rarely pinnately lobed; cauline leaves petiolate, cuneate to attenuate, not auriculate at base, considerably smaller than basal leaves, entire, dentate, or sinuate. Racemes many flowered, ebracteate, corymbose, elongated in fruit; rachis straight; fruiting pedicels ascending to divaricate, persistent. Sepals ovate, free, deciduous, ascending to spreading, equal, base of lateral pair not saccate; petals yellow, erect at base with flaring blade, distinctly longer than sepals; blade obovate to spatulate, apex retuse to emarginate or rarely obtuse; claw slightly differentiated from blade, shorter than or subequal to sepals, glabrous, unappendaged, entire ; stamens 6, slightly exserted, erect, tetradynamous; filaments minutely appendaged at base, wingless, glabrous, free; anthers ovate, apiculate at apex; nectar glands 4, lateral, 1 on each side of lateral stamens, median glands absent; ovules 4–8(–16) per ovary; placentation parietal or subapical. Fruit dehiscent, capsular silicles, obovate, obovoid, ovate, orbicular, or globose, terete or strongly latiseptate, inflated or not, unsegmented; valves papery, veinless or rarely obscurely veined, glabrous, not keeled, smooth, wingless, unappendaged; gynophore obsolete; replum rounded, visible; septum complete, membranous, veinless; style distinct, 0.5–8 mm long, slender, persistent, glabrous or rarely sparsely pubescent; stigma capitate, entire or slightly 2-lobed, unappendaged. Seeds biseriate, or aseriate (when 4), winged all around, ovate to orbicular, strongly flattened; seed coat reticulate, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons obliquely incumbent.