Wikipedia
Scaevola is a genus of flowering plants in the Goodenia family, Goodeniaceae. It consists of more than 130 tropical species, with the center of diversity being Australia and Polynesia.
Common names for Scaevola species include scaevolas, fan-flowers, half-flowers, and naupaka, the plants' Hawaiian name. The flowers are shaped as if they have been cut in half. Consequently, the generic name means " left-handed" in Latin. Many legends have been told to explain the formation of the naupaka's unique half flowers. In one version a woman tears the flower in half after a quarrel with her lover. The gods, angered, turn all naupaka flowers into half flowers and the two lovers remained separated while the man is destined to search in vain for another whole flower. Scaevola is the only Goodeniaceae genus that is widespread outside of Australia. In at least six separate dispersals, about 40 species have spread throughout the Pacific Basin, with a few reaching the tropical coasts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
The Hawaiian Islands are home to ten Scaevola species, nine of which are endemic. Eight of the indigenous species are the result of a single colonization event. Scaevola glabra and Scaevola taccada arrived separately to produce a total of three colonizations of Hawaii by Scaevola. Some of the endemic species are of hybrid origin.
Beach Naupaka ( Scaevola taccada synonym S. sericea) occurs throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans and is considered an invasive species in Florida, USA, and in some islands of the Caribbean including the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. Beachberry or Inkberry ( Scaevola plumieri) is widespread along the Atlantic coast of the tropical Americas and Africa; however, it is becoming rarer in areas where S. taccada is displacing native coastal plants.
Most Australian Scaevola have dry fruits and sprawling, herbaceous to shrubby habits. By contrast, nearly all species outside Australia have shrub habits with fleshy fruit making dispersal by frugivores easy.
The plant pathogenic sac fungus Mycosphaerella scaevolae was discovered on a Scaevola fan-flower.
Scaevola or Scævola ( Latin for " left-handed") typically refers to:
- Gaius Mucius Scaevola, a legendary assassin said to have burnt his right hand away as a show of bravery during the early years of the Roman Republic
- Scaevola (plant), the genus of fan-flowers
It may also refer to:
- Mucia Scaevolae, descendants of the Roman hero active during the time of the Republic
- Scaevola (gastropod), a genus of extinct gastropods
- Scaevola, a 1958 nuclear test undertaken by the United States as part of Operation Hardtack I
Usage examples of "scaevola".
Quintus Mucius Scaevola is the governor this year, and Publius Rutilius is with him as his legate.
Quintus Mucius Scaevola and Publius Rutilius Rufus were both in residence, but Marius and Julia were fated not to get to know Scaevola better, for he was just about to leave for Rome.
To this day, even overrated experts like Crassus Orator and old Mucius Scaevola the Augur admit that his rhetoric was peerless, that no one has ever used aphorism and hyperbole better!
Caepionis died in childbirth the day before Lucius Licinius Crassus Orator and Quintus Mucius Scaevola promulgated a new law about the Italian situation to the members of the Senate, with the result that the Marcus Livius Drusus who dragged himself to the meeting to hear the nature of the bill was in no fit state to lend the matter the attention it warranted.
All that concerned him was to give Cousin Scaevola a piece of his mind.
You know, Lucius Cornelius, there are definitely times when Scaevola reminds me irresistibly of the younger Scaurus Princeps Senatus!
Still, I have known fellow consuls who were on far worse terms with each other than Crassus Orator and Scaevola could ever be.
Certain people in Rome have never forgotten the splendid job Quintus Mucius Scaevola and I did in Asia Provincemen like Sextus Perquitienus, who can no longer confiscate priceless works of art in lieu of unpaid taxes.
Oh, I had many outraged offers of defense counselScaevola, for one, and Crassus Orator, and Antonius Orator, and even ninety-two-year-old Scaevola the Augur, if you please.
He needed Crassus Orator, Scaevola, Antonius Orator and Scaurus Princeps Senatus.
But Drusus had confided in Scaurus Princeps Senatus, in Crassus Orator, and in Scaevola, and brought them round to his way of thinking.
Quintus Mucius Scaevola has a daughter who will come of age in four or five years.
And when Censorinus had not appeared, the defense, led by Crassus Orator and Scaevola, was permitted to remove its fifteen jurors.
After Drusus was finished, Scaurus Princeps Senatus, Crassus Orator, Antonius Orator, and Scaevola all spoke in support of Drusus.
Senate, where Scaurus and Ahenobarbus Pontifex Maximus and Quintus Mucius Scaevola and a few other stalwarts kept the slavering Lucius Marcius Philippus at bay every time he proposed that Gaius Marius be stripped of his command.