Description: Multistemmed perennial subshrubs [or rosette herbs], glabrous or with branched hairs.
Flowers solitary or in irregular clusters or cymes or ± forming terminal spikes, bracteolate. Sepals 5, free, very small. Corolla blue with yellow throat [or yellow] with white and pink forms of some species, 2-lipped, often with calli in throat, auriculate. Stamens epigynous; anthers cohering in a tube around the style. Ovary inferior, 1- [or 2]-locular; indusium ± globose, without hairs around the orifice; ovule solitary.
Fruit an inferior nut often surmounted by persistent sepals, style, stamens and basal part of corolla; seed solitary.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 65 species, endemic Australia. Australia: all States.
Text by R. C. Carolin
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Stems triangular in cross section | 2 |
| Stems terete, ridged | 4 |
| 2 | Stems papillate | Dampiera fusca |
| Stems smooth
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Hairs on corolla appressed, yellowish brown | Dampiera stricta |
| Hairs on corolla loose, grey
Back to 2 | Dampiera sylvestris |
| 4 | Leaves glabrescent, hairs on young stems and leaves finely appressed | Dampiera adpressa |
| At least lower surface of leaves hairy or scabrous; hairs on stems and young leaves spreading
Back to 1 | 5 |
| 5 | Hairs on short flowering branches usually brown; flowers 12–15 mm long | Dampiera purpurea |
| Hairs on short flowering branches grey; flowers 8–12 mm long
Back to 4 | 6 |
| 6 | Corolla with woolly grey hairs outside | Dampiera lanceolata |
| Corolla with silky pale grey hairs outside
Back to 5 | Dampiera scottiana |
|
