Aethionema Aiton (1812: 80)

Moazzeni, Hamid, Al-Shehbaz, Ihsan A., German, Dmitry A., Assadi, Mostafa, Müller, Jochen, Joharchi, Mohammad Reza & Memariani, Farshid, 2018, A taxonomic revision of the genus Aethionema s. l. (Brassicaceae) in Iran, Phytotaxa 356 (4), pp. 241-266 : 247-248

Aethionema Aiton (1812: 80) . [Lectotype ( Pfeiffer 1871: 71): A. saxatile (L.) W.T. Aiton].

Syn.: Diastrophis Fischer & Meyer (1835: 35) ; Iondra Rafinesque (1840: 11) ; Moriera Boissier (1841: 380) ; Crenularia Boissier (1842: 181) ; Campyloptera Boissier (1842: 194) ; Acanthocardamum Thellung (1906: 221) .

Description: Shrubs, subshrubs, or perennial or annual herbs. Stems simple or many from base, glabrous. Leaves simple, ovate to narrowly oblong or linear, sessile or shortly petiolate, cuneate or cordate at base, subacute to obtuse or rounded at apex. Racemes many flowered, ebracteate, elongated in fruit; fruiting pedicels filiform, erect, ascending, or divaricate. Sepals ovate, free, deciduous, equal, base of lateral pair not saccate; petals white, cream, pink, to lilac,

longer than sepals; blade obovate to suborbicular, apex rounded or emarginate; claw differentiated from blade, 3- veined, glabrous, unappendaged, entire; stamens 6, erect, tetradynamous; filaments wingless or winged, appendaged or not, glabrous, free; anthers oblong, apiculate or not; ovules 1−4 per locule; placentation parietal. Fruit dehiscent or indehiscent capsular silicles, orbicular, oblong, ovate, or elliptic, angustiseptate, glabrous, bilocular or unilocular; wing developed all around or rarely at apex only, entire or dentate to fimbriate; style to 2.5 mm long, slender, persistent; included or exerted from apical notch; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds wingless, oblong, slightly flattened; seed coat smooth, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent.

Distribution: about 60 species primarily in SW Asia and SE Europe.