Goodenia rupestris
Rock hand-flower (Goodenia rupestris) is a small flowering plant in the Goodeniaceae family, native only to the Northern Territory in Australia, where it grows in rocky crevices in the Petermann Ranges.
It is a perennial herb that can climb upward or hang down, with stems up to about 20 cm long and woolly leaves crowded at the base. The leaves are elliptic to lance-shaped, 20–60 mm long and about 10 mm wide. Yellow flowers appear in long racemes up to 150 mm, each on a small stalk with leaf-like bracts and short bracteoles. The petals are about 14–16 mm long, with the lower lobes of the corolla 7–8 mm long and wings about 1.5 mm wide. Flowering mainly happens in August, followed by an elliptic fruit capsule about 6 mm long.
Goodenia rupestris was first described in 1980 by Roger C. Carolin from specimens collected in 1966 between the Hull and Docker Rivers in the Petermann Ranges. The name rupestris means “rocky,” reflecting its habitat. This plant grows in cliff crevices in the NT Petermann Ranges and is currently classified as data deficient under the Northern Territory government’s conservation act, meaning there isn’t enough information to assess its risk of extinction.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:35 (CET).