Perennials; (cespitose, deep-rooted); scapose; pubescent, trichomes short-stalked, dendritic or irregularly forked, (soft). Stems erect, unbranched. Leaves (persistent) basal; rosulate; petiolate; blade margins entire. Racemes (corymbose, few- to several-flowered), not or slightly elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels ascending to suberect, slender. Flowers: sepals (early caducous, erect), oblong, (pubescent), base of lateral pair not saccate; petals white to purplish, oblanceolate, (slightly longer than sepals); stamens tetradynamous; filaments not dilated basally; anthers ovate; nectar glands confluent, subtending bases of stamens. Fruits (erect, siliques or silicles), sessile or short-stipitate, lanceolate, broadly oblong to narrowly ovate, not torulose, latiseptate; valves each with prominent midvein and somewhat anastomosing lateral veins, glabrous; replum rounded; septum complete; ovules 10-24 per ovary; stigma capitate. Seeds biseriate, somewhat flattened, not winged, oblong to ovoid; seed coat (silvery, papillate), not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent. x = 7.

Anelsonia is most closely related to Boechera and Phoenicaulis, from which it is readily distinguished by its scapose habit and papillate seeds.