Scaevola taccada is a flowering plant commonly known as sea lettuce or locally, it is known as merambong. Scaevola, is the sole pan-tropic genus, ranging west to India, Pakistan and Madagascar and east to Micronesia, Melanesia and Hawaii. Despite its aesthetic appearance, this species is classified as an invasive species in the United States as it is competing and pushing another species away from its native habitat.

This species is a very salt and wind tolerant, inhabiting areas of high salinity and can be found primarily in sandy, or in partially rocky or muddy, shorelines and coastal dune soils, sometimes right down to the high tide mark. It is a large shrub with smooth, shiny leaves of a pleasant light green colour and attractive ‘half flowers’ (flowers with a dorsally split corolla tube) that are white with brownish red stripes. The fruits are fleshy berries developed from the green calyx and ripen to a creamy, white drupe. Medicinally, it is known to treat asthma, beri-beri, eye infections, and indigestion among others and has ornamental potentials due to its attractive light green foliage beside flowering and fruiting throughout the year.