Description :

• Undershrubs, or rarely shrubs
• Leaves alternate or radical, very rarely irregularly opposite, entire or toothed; stipules 0
• Flowers bisexual, irregular, on dichotomously branched, axillary peduncles; bracts and bracteoles present
• Calyx 5-lobed; tube adnate to ovary or rarely free; lobes persistent
• Corolla 5-lobed, somewhat fleshy; tube split to base, villous within and with processes below sinuses; lobes digitately spreading, with glabrous wings as flower opens
• Stamens 5, alternating with corolla lobes, free; filaments long, linear; anthers 2-thecous, with thecae parallel and opening longitudinally, with an apical projection
• Disc present
• Ovary inferior, 1- or 2-locular, with 1 or 2 erect or ascending, axile ovules in each locule; style simple, thick, semiterete; stigma truncate or 2-lobed, enclosed in a villous, ciliate cup
• Fruit indehiscent, with a ± succulent or membranous exocarp and a hard endocarp
• Seeds discoid with parchment-like testa
• x = 8 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• Scaevola L.
  • Linnaeus: 145 (1771) name conserved
  • Jeffrey: 537 (1980)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species ± 80, mostly Australia, few in Asia, the Pacific Islands and Africa
• Southern Africa : Species 2, coastal from KwaZulu-Natal to Western Cape