Common name: Maroon Bush, Fan Bush, Prickly Fan Flower
Scaevola spinescens R.Br. APNI* 
Description: Rigid divaricate shrub to 2 m high, with short branchlets often spinose, glabrous or with branched scurfy hairs, greyish when young.
Leaves often clustered on branchlets, obovate to linear, 0.9–3.6 cm long, 1–6 mm wide, margins entire, thick; sessile.
Flowers solitary in leaf axils; stalks slender, 5–20 mm long; bracts leaf-like; bracteoles immediately below ovary. Sepals fused into a rim 1 mm long. Corolla 9–16 mm long, densely bearded inside with all simple hairs, white or cream occasionally with purple veins; wings to 1 mm wide, laciniate. Anthers glabrous. Indusium with scattered hairs above.
Fruit ovoid, 5–8 mm long, fleshy, glabrous, black or purplish.
Flowering: most of year.
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in the drier areas usually on hillsides or stony sites, west from Pilliga district.
NSW subdivisions: CWS, NWP, SWP, NFWP, SFWP
Other Australian states: Qld Vic. W.A. S.A. N.T.
Text by R. C. Carolin
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 3 (1992)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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