Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Lasiopetalum joyceae
A velvet-bush
Malvaceae
Heath. Sydney area north of the harbour, and north from there.
Shrub to 2 m high. Stems covered with rusty stellate hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves alternating up the stems, 3–9 cm long, 3–10 mm wide, upper surface dark green and hairless and with veins visible but not prominent, lower surface whitish to rusty-hairy and the veins not visible, margins rolled down. Flowers pinkish to reddish brown, stellate hairy (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see) outside and within except for the thickened margins, with 5 'petals' 8–12 mm long, joined at the base. Bracteoles 5-8 mm long, close under the flowers. Flowers in few-flowered clusters. Flowering: spring.
Family was Sterculiaceae.
Vulnerable Australia. Vulnerable NSW. Provisions of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 No 63 relating to the protection of protected plants generally also apply to plants that are a threatened species.
NSW Threatened Species profile with photos: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedSpeciesApp/profile.aspx?id=10451 (accessed 6 January, 2021)
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Lasiopetalum~joyceae (accessed 6 January, 2021)
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