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Scaevola aemula
Also called Fairy Fan Flower
Common fanflower (Scaevola aemula) is a mat-forming perennial from southern Australia with fan-shaped blue, mauve or white flowers. It is the most widely grown species in its genus, and many cultivars exist; the key to growing it is sun or part shade with well-drained soil.
Scaevola aemula, commonly known as the fairy fan-flower or common fan-flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae. It has mostly egg-shaped leaves and blue, mauve or white fan-shaped flowers. It grows in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia.
The species is thought to be the most commonly cultivated of the genus Scaevola, and a large number of cultivars have been developed. Most of these are mat-forming to a height of 12 cm and spreading up to 1 metre in width. It prefers a sunny or partially shaded, well-drained position and tolerates salt spray and periods of drought. Pruning and pinching of tip growth may be carried out to shape the plant. Propagation is from cuttings or by layering.
Fairy fan-flower grows in dry sclerophyll forest mostly on sandy soils from the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, through Victoria to Mount Warning in New South Wales and in the Esperance Plains bioregion of Western Australia. It also occurs in the Great Oyster Bay region between the Prosser River and Apsley River in Tasmania.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Scaevola aemula by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
