Pale goodenia facts for kids

The Pale Goodenia (Goodenia glauca) is a beautiful flowering plant. It belongs to the Goodeniaceae family. You can find it only in the dry inland parts of eastern Australia. This plant is a perennial herb, meaning it lives for more than two years and has soft stems. It has a special bluish-green look, called "glaucous." Its leaves are shaped like spears or ovals. The plant also grows lovely pale yellow flowers in clusters.

What Does Pale Goodenia Look Like?

The Pale Goodenia is a glaucous plant. This means it has a cool, bluish-grey or bluish-green coating. It grows upright or slightly angled, usually reaching about 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) tall. The plant is mostly smooth, without hairs.

Its leaves are found at the bottom of the plant. They are shaped like a lance (a spear) or an ellipse (an oval). These leaves are usually 30 to 80 millimeters (about 1.2 to 3.1 inches) long. They are also 5 to 10 millimeters (about 0.2 to 0.4 inches) wide. Sometimes, the edges of the leaves can be slightly toothed.

Pale Goodenia Flowers

The flowers of the Pale Goodenia grow in special clusters called racemes. These clusters can be up to 150 millimeters (about 6 inches) long. Each flower has small, leaf-like parts called bracts near it. Every flower sits on a stalk called a pedicel. These stalks are usually 20 to 50 millimeters (about 0.8 to 2 inches) long.

The flowers have small, lance-shaped parts called sepals. These sepals are about 2.5 to 4 millimeters (about 0.1 to 0.16 inches) long. The main petals, which form the corolla, are pale yellow. They are about 12 to 17 millimeters (about 0.5 to 0.7 inches) long. The lower parts of the corolla are about 5.5 to 6.5 millimeters (about 0.2 to 0.26 inches) long. They also have special "wings" that are about 2.5 to 3 millimeters (about 0.1 to 0.12 inches) wide.

When Does Pale Goodenia Flower?

You can see the Pale Goodenia flowering almost all year round! After the flowers bloom, the plant produces a fruit. This fruit is a round capsule, which is a dry fruit that opens to release seeds. The capsule is about 6 millimeters (about 0.24 inches) across.

How Pale Goodenia Got Its Name

The Pale Goodenia was first officially described in 1855. A famous botanist named Ferdinand von Mueller gave it its scientific name. He published his description in a scientific paper.

The second part of its scientific name, glauca, is a Latin word. It means "having a bluish-grey or bluish-green bloom." This perfectly describes the plant's unique color!

Where Pale Goodenia Lives

This type of goodenia plant mostly grows in specific areas. You can find it on floodplains and along river banks. It prefers heavy soils in the drier inland regions of Australia. These areas include parts of Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales.