Scaevola
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the Roman name, see Mucius Scaevola.
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 Scaevola chamissoniana
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Scaevola is a genus of plants in the family Goodeniaceae. It contains approximately 130 species.
Scaevola is the only Goodeniaceae genus that is widespread outside of Australia. In at least six separate dispersals, about 40 species have spread throughout the Pacific Basin, with a few reaching the tropical coasts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Two species are widespread throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans (S. taccada) or in the tropical Americas and Africa (S. plumieri).
Most Australian Scaevola have dry fruits and sprawling, herbaceous to shrubby habits. By contrast, nearly all species outside Australia have fleshy fruits and are often tall shrubs or trees.
- Scaevola sericea is a dense, spreading shrub that generally grows up to 3 feet tall, but can be up to 10 feet tall and 6 to 15 feet wide. The medium green leaves are waxy and fleshy. They grow from 2 to 8 inches long, are much narrower than they are wide, and are broader at the tip than the base. Often the edges of the leaves roll under. The flowers are white or cream colored, often with purple streaks, and have a pleasant fragrance. They have an irregular shape with all all five petals on one side of the flower making them appear to have been torn in half. The flowers grow in small clusters from between the leaves at the ends of the stems.
- Scaevola coriacea (dwarf naupaka) is a low, flat-lying perennial herb historically found on six Hawaiian Islands but now only on Maui and two offshore islets. It is an endangered species with less than 300 plants in existence. Its older stems are somewhat woody, and the succulent leaves are oval-shaped, relatively far apart, and smooth or somewhat scaly with rounded tips. Flowers occur in branched clusters from the point of leaf attachment in groups of one to three.
 Scaevola coriacea (dwarf naupaka) |
[edit] References
- Hawaiian Native Plant Propagation Database
- Dianella G. Howarth, Mats H. G. Gustafsson, David A. Baum, and Timothy J. (2003). "Phylogenetics of the genus Scaevola (Goodeniaceae): implication for dispersal patterns across the Pacific Basin and colonization of the Hawaiian Islands". American Journal of Botany 90: 915-213.
