Scaevola myrtifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Goodeniaceae and is endemic to coastal areas of south-western Australia. It is a spreading, slightly sticky shrub with elliptic to oblong leaves, sometimes with a few teeth on the edges, white flowers sometimes singly or in cymes in leaf axils, and glabrous, green, cylindrical fruit.
Description Scaevola myrtifolia is a spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of and is slightly sticky when young, with scattered, more or less star-shaped hairs. Its leaves are elliptic to oblong, sometimes with a few teeth on the edges, long and wide on a short petiole. The flowers are borne singly or in cymes in leaf axils on a peduncle up to long, with linear bracteoles long. The sepals are joined to form a tube about long, and the petals long and white, glabrous or sparsely hairy outside and bearded inside. Flowering mainly occurs from May to October, and the fruit is about long, rough, green and glabrous.
Taxonomy This species was first formally described in 1854 by Willem Hendrik de Vriese who gave it the name Merkusia myrtifolia in the journal Natuurkundige verhandelingen van de Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen te Haarlem. In 1912, Kurt Krause transferred the species to Scaevola as S. myrtifolia in Engler's Das Pflanzenreich. The specific epithet (myrtifolia) means 'myrtle-leaved'.
Distribution Scaevola myrtifolia grows in stony soil, often over limestone, in mallee in near coastal areas from near Albany in Western Australia to the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.
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