Dampiera is a genus of about 70 species of flowering plants in the family Goodeniaceae, all of which are endemic to Australia. Plants in the genus Dampiera are subshrubs or herbs with sessile leaves, flowers with five small sepals and blue, violet or pink, rarely white, two-lipped flowers.

Description

Plants in the genus Dampiera are multistemmed perennial subshrubs or herbs with a rosette of leaves, the leaves simple, sessile and sometimes with toothed edges. The flowers have five very small sepals and petals joined at the base with two "lips" with unequal lobes. The stamens form a tube around the style and are attached to the petal tube. The fruit is a nut often with parts of the flowers remaining attached, and contains a single seed.

Taxonomy

The genus Dampiera was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen. The genus is named for William Dampier, an English sea captain who landed on the north-west coast of Western Australia in 1688 and 1699 and collected about twenty-five species of the first Australian plants to reach European herbaria.

Species list

The following is a list of Dampiera species accepted by the Australian Plant Census as at May 2021:

Distribution

Species of Dampiera occur in all Australian States, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.