Goodenia watsonii
Goodenia watsonii is a species of flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a perennial herb with egg-shaped to elliptic leaves mostly at the base of the plant, and thyrses of white, cream-coloured or bluish flowers.
Description
Goodenia watsonii is perennial herb that typically grows to a height of with a thick stem. It has egg-shaped to elliptic leaves long, wide at the base of the plant and sometimes with toothed edges. The flowers are arranged in thyrses up to long on a peduncle up to long, each flower on a pedicel long with linear bracts up to long and shorter bracteoles. The sepals are narrow egg-shaped, long, the corolla white, cream-coloured or bluish, long. The corolla lobes are long with wings about wide. Flowering occurs from October to February and the fruit is a more or less spherical capsule in diameter.Taxonomy and naming
Goodenia watsonii was first formally described in 1893 by Ferdinand von Mueller and Ralph Tate in Botanisches Centralblatt from material collected by Richard Helms "at Gnarlbine" during the Elder Exploring Expedition. The specific epithet honours "Professor Watson, of the Adelaide University.In 1990, Roger Charles Carolin described two subspecies in the journal Telopea and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:Goodenia watsonii subsp. glandulosa Carolin has the peduncles, pedicels ovary and parts of the petals covered with soft glandular hairs, and a bluish corolla with a yellow centre, or whitish;Goodenia watsonii F.Muell. & Tate subsp. watsonii has most glabrous flower parts and a white corolla.