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Service Notice

The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system, WAHerb, and DBCA’s flora taxonomic names application, WACensus, have been set to read-only mode since 1 October 2025. Recent taxonomic changes are not currently being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or the census. Due to the rapidly approaching holiday season and associated agency and facility soft closures, along with the substantial work involved in data mapping, cleaning, and verification, the migration to the new collection management software is not expected to occur before 1 March 2026, when a further update will be provided. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

The notice period started at 9:45 am on Friday, 12 December 2025 +08:00 and will end at 12:00 pm on Monday, 2 March 2026 +08:00.

Scaevola tortuosa Benth.
Tortuous-stem Scaevola

Reference
Fl.Austral. 4:91-92 (1868)
Conservation Code
Priority One
Naturalised Status
Native to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Ascending perennial, herb, 0.1-0.2 m high. Fl. blue-purple/pink, Oct. Sandy clay. Margins of salt lakes.

Amanda Spooner, Descriptive Catalogue, 22 September 1999

Scientific Description

Stems ribbed. Leaves flat, 15-40 mm long, 4-5 mm wide, Indumentum present, with dense, simple hairs; margins entire or toothed. Bracteoles present, 1.5-2 mm long, hairy, with simple hairs. Pedicel pedicellate, Pedicel length the pedicels 20-30 mm long, Indumentum present, Hair type with simple hairs. Calyx lobes present, Calyx length 2-4 mm long, hairy, with dense, simple hairs. Corolla blue or mauve, 16-22 mm long, without auricles, not spurred, hairy on the outside, with sparse, simple hairs, hairy on the inside; central lobes 6-8.5 mm long, with wings; outer lobes 6-7.5 mm long, wings present on both sides, 0.5-0.8 mm wide. Anthers free. Ovary inferior, not gibbose; style 8-10 mm long, hairy; indusium single, hairy; ovules one or two. Flowers in October. Occurs in the Coolgardie (COO) and Avon Wheatbelt (AW) IBRA Region(s), of the Eremaean (E) and South West (SW) Botanical Province. Conservation Code: Conservation code Priority One (P1).

C. Hollister and K.R. Thiele, 2 August 2023

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Mallee.
IBRA Subregions
Eastern Goldfield, Eastern Mallee, Katanning, Merredin, Southern Cross, Western Mallee.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Bruce Rock, Cunderdin, Esperance, Goomalling, Kellerberrin, Kondinin, Kulin, Quairading, Ravensthorpe, Wongan-Ballidu.