Significant features:  Most taxa share a suite of glycosinolate compounds knows as 'mustard oils' that produce the pungent odor that one associates with 'cole' crops, such as cabbage and broccoli, and this can be useful for family recognition.  The perianth is biseriate with each whorl, the calyx and corolla, four-parted with no connation.  The petals are usually positioned opposite one another and, on face view, the corolla forms a cross.  The stamens are often tetradynamous and the fruit is a bilocular capsule with an internal replum.