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This cultivar is an herbaceous perennial, often multi-stemmed and reaches a height of 40 cm with a spread of 50 cm.
Scaevola ‘Aussie Salute’ is a cultivar of the well known Scaevola aemula.
Scaevola have simple and mostly alternate leaves, sometimes sessile. In this cultivar, leaves are up to 10 cm long by 3 cm wide; obovate and toothed or lobed; light to dark green in colour.
Scaevola spp. have flowers arranged in spikes, thryses or racemes, often with accomapnying bracts. Flowers are 5-merous with 5 sepals and 5 winged petals in a hand-fan-formation (hence the common names). There are usually 5 stamens and 1 carpel within. In this cultivar, flowers come in spikes to 25 cm long, with flowers to 25 mm long and wide, blue-purple in colour; typically rpoduced in spring and summer.
The fruit of S. aemula is a fleshy drupaceous organ which does not split open, to 5 mm long.
Scaevola ‘Aussie Salute’ could be grown in containers, rockeries and native cottage gardens. Light pruning, after flowering, will keep plants dense and blooming bounteously.
In our cold climate garden [near Armidale, NSW], we have found that plants need to be heavily mulched and watered regularly during the warmer summer months.
Scaevola aemula has given rise to many named cultivars. They are popular in cultivation overseas where cultivars are treated as annuals and grown in hanging baskets and containers. We saw Scaevolas growing around the base of a fountain in Florence, Italy.
It is best grown in some shade with adequate moisture. Plants may only live a few years but new plants can always be easily made with cuttings.
Scaevolas propagate rapidly from cuttings.
Scaevola spp. likely regenerate from seed after fire.
Scaevola is a genus of around 100 species, distributed through the tropical southern hemisphere as well as the Carribean. Australia has a reported 71 species of which 70 are endemic, occurring on the mainland only. NSW currently has 12 species.
Scaevola – named for the potentially mythical Roman hero Gaius Mucius Scaeva with the name reportedly meaning “left-handed” – referring to the appearance of the fan-flowers (although – for Australia species at least, they seem to appear equally left or right-handed).
aemula – from the Latin for “rival” or “competitor”, which may be referring to its strong similarity to other species in the genus.
‘Aussie Salute’ – likely named for the hand-shaped appearance of the flowers and the Australian origin.
NSW Flora Online (PlantNET) – Scaevola aemula profile page https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Scaevola~aemula
Wrigley, J.W. & Fagg, M.I. (2001). Australian Native Plants – Propagation, cultivation and use in landscaping. 4th edition. New Holland Publishers, Pty. Ltd. Australia.
Gardening with Angus – Scaevola aemula profile page https://www.gardeningwithangus.com.au/scaevola-aemula-aussie-crawl-fan-flower/