Some of the genera are nickel (Ni) hyperaccumulators (a plant capable of growing in soil or water with very high concentrations of metals).

It is similar in habit to Alyssum and has small yellow flowers, except that it has a suborbicular pouch and one seeded cells.

It is found in Europe (within Albania, Bulgaria, Corsica, Crete, Czechoslovakia, East Aegean Islands, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Sardina, Sicily, Switzerland and Yugoslavia), Eastern Europe (within Central European Russia, Crimea, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia and Ukraine), Siberia (within Altai, Buryatiya, Chita Oblast, Irkutsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tuva, West Siberia and Yakutskiya), the Russian Far East (within Amur Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai and Magadan Oblast), Central Asia (within Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan), the Caucasus (North Caucasus and Transcaucasus), Western Asia (Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey), China (Inner Mongolia, Manchuria and Xinjiang), Mongolia and also Subarctic America (within Alaska, Northwest Territories and the Yukon).

[10] The following list includes all species recognised by either Plants of the World Online (as of January 2022)[2] or by BrassiBase (version 1.3, June 2020).

About 48 members of the Odontarrhena species,[12] are known to be nickel (Ni) hyperaccumulators (a plant capable of growing in soil or water with very high concentrations of metals).

[5][13][8] The accumulation of nickel was first discovered in the Italian endemic Odontarrhena bertolonii (Desv.)