Goodenia coerulea

Goodenia coerulea is a species of flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, perennial shrub or biennial herb shrub with linear leaves at the base of the plant, sometimes with a few teeth on the edges, racemes of blue flowers and oval fruit.

Description

Goodenia coerulea is an erect, ascending shrub or biennial herb that typically grows to a height of with foliage covered with glandular hairs. The leaves are linear, long, wide and sessile. The flowers are arranged in racemes mostly up to long on a peduncle long with small, leaf-like bracteoles long at the base, each flower on a hairy pedicel long. The sepals are linear to lance-shaped, long and the petals blue and long. The lower lobes of the corolla are long with wings about wide. Flowering occurs from September to January and the fruit is an oval capsule long.

Taxonomy and naming

Goodenia coerulea was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. The specific epithet means "deep sky-blue".

Distribution and habitat

This goodenia grows in a variety of habitats and is widely distributed from near Shark Bay the south coast in the south-west of Western Australia.

Conservation status

Goodenia coerulea is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.