Erect, coarse, rough, annual or biennial herb with fusiform tap root; stem branched, 20-90 cm tall; lower leaves lyrate-pinnatifid, sinuate-dentate segments, upper ones entire or dentate, subsessile or sessile; raceme 10-30 flowered; flowers ebracteate, large, about 2 cm across, usually white or lilac with purple veins, shortly pedicelled, increasing in fruit; sepals 4, erect, oblong, subequal, lateral saccate at the base; petals-4, long clawed, ovate limbs; stamens 6, anthers oblong; ovary 1-celled, sometimes parietal placenta forms false septum, ovules many; pods 2-6 cm long, cylindric, indehiscent, terete, fleshy, constricted separating the seeds, tapering to a long beak at apex; seeds 6-12, pendulous sub-globose, uniseriate, brown, reticulate.