Scaevola glandulifera | |
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Scientific classification
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Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Asterales |
Family: | Goodeniaceae |
Genus: | Scaevola |
Species: | S. glandulifera
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Binomial name | |
Scaevola glandulifera | |
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Occurrence data from Australasian Virtual Herbarium | |
Synonyms [3] | |
Lobelia glandulifera
Kuntze |
Scaevola glandulifera, the viscid hand-flower, is a shrub in the family Goodeniaceae, endemic to Western Australia. [4]
Scaevola glandulifera is an erect shrub which grows to a height of 50 cm. [5] The stems are not ribbed. [4] The leaves are stalkless, sometimes smooth edged, sometimes toothed, with a leaf blade which is 2-9 cm long and 1-10 mm wide. The flowers occur in terminal spikes. The corolla is 10-30 mm long, and has short hairs both simple and glandular with occasionally longer, stiff, yellow hairs on the outside. It is bearded inside and a deep blue-purple colour. The ovary has two locules. The cup which holds the style (indusium) is 1.5-3 mm wide, and hairy on both the inner and outer surfaces. The fruit is obovoid and up to 4 mm long and can be with or without a hairy surface. [5]
It flowers from August to December, January. [4] [5]
In Western AustraliaScaevola glandulifera is found in the IBRA bioregions of Geraldton Sandplains, Swan Coastal Plain, Avon Wheatbelt, Jarrah Forest, Warren and Esperance Plains (or in the South West Botanical Province. [4]
Scaevola glandulifera was first described in 1839 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. [1] [2]
The genus name, Scaevola, is Latin, a diminutive of scaeva, the left-handed, referring to the left-handed Roman, Gaius Mucius Scaevola, made famous by Livy, the flower being so like a hand. [6] The specific epithet, glandulifera, comes from the Latin, glandula (gland) and ferre (carry/bear), giving "gland-bearing". [7]