''Scaevola plumieri'' (common name gullfeed) is a species of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in the family

Goodeniaceae Goodeniaceae is a family (biology), family of flowering plants in the Order (biology), order Asterales. It contains about 404 species in twelve genera. The family is distributed mostly in Australia, except for the genus ''Scaevola (plant), Scaevo ...

which grows on coastal dunes in the tropics and subtropics.

Description

''Scaevola plumieri'' is a many branched evergreen shrub, which has succulent hairless leaves at the tips of its branches, shedding its leaves below the tips to leave leaf-scars on the yellowy-green stems below. The leaf-axils can have either sparse silky hairs or none, and the leaves are either stalkless (sessile) or with a winged stalk, obovate, 5–11 cm. long, 2–7 cm. broad, and smooth-edged. There are 2-4 pairs lateral veins which are not easily seen. The inflorescence is a series cymes in the axils with one to seven stalkless flowers. The corolla is white or greenish with a tube 10–12 mm. long, 3 mm. broad, and crowded with hairs inside. The ovary is 2-locular but only one ovule develops. The fleshy fruit is blue or black and from 10 to 15 mm in diameter. The seeds do not disperse from the fruit. ''Scaevola plumieri'' is similar to ''

Scaevola taccada ''Scaevola taccada'', also known as beach cabbage, sea lettuce, or beach naupaka, is a flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae found in coastal locations in the tropical areas of the Indo-Pacific. It is a common beach shrub throughout the Arab ...

'' – both were included in the original

circumscription Circumscription may refer to: *Circumscribed circle *Circumscription (logic) *Circumscription (taxonomy) * Circumscription theory, a theory about the origins of the political state in the history of human evolution proposed by the American anthrop ...

of the species. ''S. plumieri'' has short or absent lobes on its calyx and black fruit when ripe. ''S. sericea'' has evident calyx lobes and white fruit on which the calyx lobes persist. File:Scaevola plumieri 2.jpg, Black fruit of ''S. plumieri'' File:Scaevola taccada fruit.jpg, White fruit of ''S. taccada'' with persistent calyx lobes

Taxonomy

''Scaevola plumieri'' was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1753 as ''Lobelia plumierii'', supplemented by Linnaeus' description of ''Lobelia'' in 1747. Linnaeus later considered it to be the sole species in his new genus ''Scaevola'', although the combination ''Scaevola plumieri'' was first published by

Martin Vahl Martin Henrichsen Vahl (10 October 1749 – 24 December 1804) was a Danish-Norwegian botanist, herbalist and zoologist. Biography Martin Vahl was born in Bergen, Norway and attended Bergen Cathedral School. He studied botany at the University ...

in 1791.

Distribution and habitat

''Scaevola plumieri'' is found on the coasts of east Africa from

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, the coasts of west Africa from S. Tomé to

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, and tropical America south of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. It inhabits coastal sand-dunes. Scaevola plumieri - vegetation (8624222587).jpg, Sand-dune Mozambique Scaevola plumieri 3 (8625346946).jpg, Fruit & Flowers

References

External links

GBIF: ''Scaevola plumieri'' Vahl - occurrence data
{{Taxonbar plumieri Flora of Africa Flora of Somalia Flora of Florida Taxa named by Martin Vahl Plants described in 1791