Goodenia ovata

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Hop Goodenia

Conservation status: ...

Etymology:   

• The genus name Goodenia honours Bishop of Carlisle Samuel Goodenough, a member of the Linnean Society of London at the time

• The species' name ovata refers to the egg-shaped or oval leaves

Flowers:                  

• Each flower is borne on a pedicel up to 8 mm long, the sepals linear to lance-shaped and 3–11 mm long

• The petals are yellow, 10–19 mm long, the lower lobes 5–7 mm long with wings up to 2.5 mm wide

• Flowering occurs throughout the year with a peak from October to March 

Fruit:                         

• A cylindrical capsule 8–12 mm long

Leaves:         

• The leaves are egg-shaped to elliptic, 30–80 mm long and 10–40 mm wide with toothed edges, on a petiole up to 30 mm long

• The flowers are arranged in racemes or thyrses about 350 mm long 

• These are on a peduncle 10–40 mm long, with leaf-like bracts and linear bracteoles 2–6 mm long

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• An erect, ascending to prostrate shrub that typically grows to a height of 2 m and has sticky, often varnished foliage 

Habitat:   

• Forest, woodland and scrub in higher rainfall areas, and especially in disturbed areas

• It is found near the coast as well as in drier inland areas

• It grows on medium-nutrient clay soils derived from shale, as well as siltstone and sandstone, in areas of good drainage in a partly-shaded location in moist eucalypt forests 

• In in moist eucalypt forests it grows alongside Themeda australis and under such trees as turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera) or blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis), or in open forest under swamp oak (Casuarina glauca), forest red gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis), thin-leaved stringybark (E. eugenioides), or woollybutt (E. longifolia)

Distribution:                  

• South-eastern South Australia, most of Victoria apart from the northern mallee and alpine areas and most of New South Wales

• It is also widespread in Tasmania and south-eastern Queensland

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Goodenia ovata was first formally described in 1794 by James Edward Smith in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London from specimens "presented to the Society by Mr. Hoy" in December 1792

• Ecology

  • The flowers of G. ovata are pollinated by insects, including native bees, honeybees, and hoverflies

  • The plant is killed by bushfire and regenerates from seed afterwards

• Use in horticulture

  • In cultivation, the species prefers a situation in part shade and with some moisture

  • It copes with a range of soil types and tolerates moderate frost

  • Fast-growing, it can be used as a "filler" plant in the garden

  • It is readily propagated by cuttings

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodenia_ovata (2024)