Androcalva pearnii
Androcalva pearnii is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and is endemic to the Blackdown Tableland National Park in eastern Queensland. It is shrub that forms suckers and has hairy new growth, wavy, oblong to elliptic leaves with rounded lobes on the edges, and groups of 3 to 8 white and cream-coloured to pale green flowers.
Description
Androcalva pearnii is a suckering shrub that typically grows to high and wide, its new growth covered with fine, star-shaped hairs. The leaves are oblong to elliptic, long and wide on a petiole long with narrowly triangular stipules long at the base. The edges of the leaves are wavy with 5 to 7 pairs of rounded lobes long and both surfaces of the leaves are covered with velvety hairs. The flowers are arranged in groups of 3 to 8 on a peduncle long, each flower on a pedicel long, with bracts long at the base. The flowers are white and cream-coloured to pale green and in diameter with 5 petal-like sepals, the lobes long and wide. The petals are white, long, and there are 3 staminodes between each pair of stamens. Flowering occurs from September to December and in March.
Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 2005 by Gordon Guymer who gave it the name Commersonia pearnii in the journal Austrobaileya from specimens collected by Paul Irwin Forster near Charlevue Lookout in the Blackdown Tableland National Park in 2005. In 2011, Carolyn Wilkins and Barbara Whitlock transferred the species to Androcalva as A. pearnii in Australian Systematic Botany. The specific epithet honours Professor John Pearn.
Distribution and habitat
Androcalva pearnii grows in open forest on the Blackdown Tableland in eastern Queensland.
Conservation Status
Androcalva pearnii is listed as "critically endangered" under the Queensland Nature [Conservation Act 1992]. It is not currently listed under the Australian Government Environment Protection and [Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999]. The species has been nominated for assessment by the Threatened Species Scientific Committee. The assessment is expected to be completed by the end of October 2026 with the proposed listing of "critically endangered" under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.