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Electronic Flora of South Australia genus Fact Sheet

Family: Goodeniaceae
Scaevola

Citation: L., Mant. 145 (1771).

Derivation: Latin cognomen Scaevola, left-handed; scaevus, left; referring to the 5 corolla lobes all on one side of the axis.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Fanflowers, handflowers.

Description:
About 50 species in Australia, and another 30 throughout the subtropical Southern Hemisphere and the Caribbean.

Flowers solitary or in a thyrse, raceme or spike, sessile or shortly pedunculate, with paired bracteoles, strongly zygomorphic; sepals 5, short, usually connate; corolla split to the base posteriorly; lobes winged, subequal, spreading like a fan or the fingers of an open hand; auricles absent; stamens free, epigynous; anthers oblong; style simple, glabrous to villous, shorter than the corolla, bent at the apex; indusium transversely oblong to very depressed-obovate, cup-shaped with bristles around the orifice; stigma 2-lobed; ovary inferior, partially or completely 2-celled with 1 erect ovule in each cell.

Fruit indehiscent, dry or drupe-like with a fleshy mesocarp and bony endocarp; seeds endospermic, oblong, never flattened or winged.

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: The key and descriptions of some species are based on an unpublished draft revision by R. C. Carolin (assisted in the early stages by Susan Dyer). R.C. Carolin is the sole author of the footnotes describing new species. A species of uncertain affinities occurs in the northern FR and LE regions; it keys out at S. collina (below), but has densely and finely tomentose leaves apparently without glandular hairs.

Key to Species:
1. Indumentum of scurfy (glandular) stellate hairs
 
2. Spines present on stems; peduncles 0.5-2 cm long
S. spinescens 17.
2. Spines absent; peduncles to 0.5 cm long
 
3. Leaves obtuse; style glabrous
S. bursariifolia 5.
3. Leaves acute; style villous
S. myrtifolia 14.
1. Indumentum not as above
 
4. Stems conspicuously striate, green, divaricate; leaves remote, mostly reduced to scales
 
5. Sepals free
S. parvifolia 16.
5. Sepals connate into a campanulate calyx
 
6. Stems with stiff simple hairs and minute glandular hairs; corolla coarsely pubescent outside
S. basedowii 4.
6. Stems glabrous or subglabrous~ corolla puberulent outside
S. depauperata 10.
4. Stems not striate, leafy; leaves not reduced
 
7. lndusium exceeded or equalled by a prominent beard of erect bristles arising from the base on the posterior side
 
8. Hairs on the stem antrorse, often appressed
 
9. Hairs coarse, often yellowish; corolla 17-25 mm long
S. aemula 1.
9. Hairs fine, white; corolla 10-15 mm long
S. humilis 12.
8. Hairs on the stem tomentose or spreading, or the stem glabrous
S. collina 8.
7. Indusium glabrous, sparsely hairy, or with a tuft of very short appressed hairs near the base
 
10. Leaves hairy, at least when young; corolla pubescent outside
 
11. Ovary 2-celled; fruit with 2 fertile cells
 
12. Plant prostrate on coastal dunes, semisucculent; corolla bright-blue
S. calendulacea 6.
12. Plant erect or ascending, not succulent; corolla lilac to yellow-green
S. parvibarbata 15.
11. Ovary and fruit 1-celled
 
13. Leaves obovate to elliptic, flat; corolla 5-12 mm long
S. albida 2.
13. Leaves linear to narrow-elliptic, with recurved margins; corolla 12-20 mm long
S. linearis 13.
10. Leaves glabrous; corolla glabrous or subglabrous outside
 
14. Fruit with a distinct beak and a pedicel-like foot; style glandular-pubescent
S. collaris 7.
14. Fruit without a beak or foot; style with simple hairs or glabrous
 
15. Bracts elliptic, similar to the leaves but becoming smaller above
S. glabrata 11.
15. Bracts linear to narrow-triangular, very distinct from the leaves
 
16. Leaves not thickened; corolla 11-20 mm long
S. angustata 3.
16. Leaves thickened; corolla 8-11 mm long
S. crassifolia 9.

Author: Prepared by D. A. Cooke & R. C. Carolin


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