Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Commersonia breviseta
Common name
None
Family
Malvaceae
Where found
Woodland and heath, in rocky areas. Coast and ranges south from west of Moruya.
Notes
Shrub to 3 m tall, sometimes sprawling. Stems with dense stellate hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see) above simple hairs, slightly sticky. Leaves alternating up the stems. Juvenile leaves with 3 conspicuous lobes, 4.5-11 cm long, 20-83 mm wide. Adult leaves entire, 0.8-2.41 cm long, 1-7.5 mm wide, upper surface slightly wrinkly and with dense white stellate hairs above smaller hairs and medium density orange-red tipped glands, lower surface with dense to tomentose white or white with tan-centred stellate hairs, above dense smaller, white, stellate hairs, margins irregularly toothed and curved down; tips blunt. Flowers with 5 petals, pink to white with a pale yellow base, each 2.3-3.4 mm long. Flowers in clusters of 4-16 flowers. Flowers Spring.
Family was Sterculiaceae.
Endangered Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Commersonia~breviseta (accessed 7 January, 2021)
Description above partly from Wilkins, C.F., Copeland, L.M. & Whitlock, B.A., (2008) Two new species of Commersonia (Malvaceae sensu lato) from south-eastern Australia. Telopea 12(1): 65-69, Figs 3, 4 (map)
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