Family: Malvaceae
Commersonia tatei
Citation:
F. Muell. ex Tate, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 11:82 (1889).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Trailing commersonia.
Description:
Slender shrubs to 80 cm high and c. 1.5 m broad, often branching mainly near the base, stellate-tomentose especially on the leaves; leaves subsessile or on petioles to 9 mm long, fascicled, more or less oblong or ovate, toothed or lobed especially towards the apex, with recurved-undulate margins, usually c. 3-5 mm long but rarely to 15 mm, white-tomentose below, sparsely hairy above; stipules brown, linear-lanceolate, 2-3 mm long.
Inflorescences often 2- or 4-flowered; pedicels 1-6 mm long; calyx whitish, 5-ridged in bud, with robust stellate hairs outside, inside with fewer finer stellate hairs and some single hairs, 3-5 mm long; petals shorter than or about as long as the sepals, with a broad truncate concave base and an oblong or oblong-obovate ligule, red-spotted in the centre; staminodes each consisting of an erect oblong-lanceolate segment a little shorter than the petals and a pair of lateral shorter linear lobes; anthers globular, red.
capsules rarely collected, globose, stellate-tomentose, with numerous stellate-hairy c. 1 mm long curved processes, c. 6-8 mm diam.
| Commersonia tatei habit and twig of larger-leaved from, petal, ovary, staminode, stamen and fruit.
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Image source: fig 442a in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: mainly Aug. — Jan.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Taxonomic notes:
The larger leaved form shows some similarity with C. crispa Turcz. from W.Aust.
Author:
Not yet available
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