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:

• Goodeniaceae
  • Sonder: 532, 604 (1865)
  • Launert: 85 (1983)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Genera 16, species ± 430, mostly Australia, also New Zealand, antarctic South America, tropical Asia and Africa
• Southern Africa: Genus 1, species 2

References:

• LAUNERT, E. 1983. Goodeniaceae. Flora zambesiaca 7,1
• SONDER, W. 1865. Goodenovieae. Flora capensis 3

Resources:

• Goodeniaceae genus: Scaevola