#goodenia

Goodenia ovata

18-AUG-2025

AKA Selliera radicans, remuremu, swampweed and bonking grass. I have no certain idea why it's called the latter, but have a few suspicions. Sohn Louis Sellier (1757-c.1835) was a Parisian engraver who did some plates for J.J.H.Labillardièreís Novae Hollandiae Plantarum.

A creeping, herbaceous plant with spoon-shaped leaves found in New Zealand, Australia and Chile, growing in permenantly to seasonally damp areas in dense mats about 2m across.

Mostly coastal but found in a wide range of locations, all the way up to alpine, in sand swales, on cliff tops and the talus slopes below, in coastal turf, in the marginal turf of lake and ponds, and in salt pans.

Probably the hostplant of the critically endangered moth Asaphodes frivola, a Geometrid with flightless females. It's now found in just two remaining coastal sites near Invercargill. The large site is 25 m2.

A prostrate or ascending herb endemic to Eastern Australia, distinguished from similar species by the woolly white hair.

First formally described by English botanist James Edward Smith in 1794 in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. In 1912, German botanist Kurt Krause described the variety alpestris from subalpine grassland and woodland, and in 1990 Australian botanist Roger Charles Carolin raised it to subspecies status.

Most of the 200 Goodenia species are endemic to Australia.

According to the Australian National Herbarium "Goodenia hederacea is horticulturally desirable as it is quite easy to establish and grow, extremely attractive (it particularly looks good in hanging baskets), drought tolerant, frost resistant, requires little maintenance, grows in most soil conditions (including dry areas), and can be used for bordering paths or as a ground cover."

Another SW endemic, found in the damper parts of this end of the continent.

First described as Velleia trinervis by French naturalist Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (1755 – 1834), a member of a voyage in search of the lost La Pérouse expedition. He produced the first botanical text on Australia and adjacent regions, despite having his entire collection confiscated by the English as spoils of war. Fortunately, Joseph Banks campaigned for their return, and he was able to write to William Price at the British Museum:

... his Majesty's Ministers have thought it necessary for the honour of the British nation and for the advancement of Science that the right of the Captors to the Collection should be on this occasion wav'd and that the whole should be returned to M. de Billardiere, in order that he may be able to publish his Observations on Natural History in a complete manner ... By this her Majesty will lose an acquisition to her herbarium, which I very much wish'd to see deposited there, but the national character of Great Britain will certainly gain much credit for holding a conduct towards Science and Scientific men liberal in the highest degree.

Personality-wise, Labillardière seems to have been a complex man - even his eulogy says he "hide everything that was good in his soul behind a caustic and bitter intellect", having "the stubborn, almost pigheaded, independent mentality of the peasants near Alençon", but highly regarded for his sincerity and generosity. Augustin Saint-Hilaire, for example, wrote that Labillardière "could perceive someone's slightest defect; yet he would have been ready to open his purse for the same man whose ridiculousness had not escaped him, and would have done all in his power to help him".

Over a hundred plant species have been named after him.

First described in 1829 by French botanist Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré as Distylis berardiana. Auguste Bérard was the surgeon on Louis de Freycinet's circumnavigation of the globe, which among other things produced the first complete map of Australia's coastline. 160 years later Roger Charles Carolin moved it to Goodenia.

A small erect annual with leaves of surprisingly variable shape. Widespread in the drier parts of SW WA, much more rare in South Australia and the far west of New South Wales.

Figure 5 from Characterizing Floral Symmetry in the Core Goodeniaceae with Geometric Morphometrics