Commersonia corniculata
Commersonia corniculata is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is an erect to prostrate shrub with 3-lobed, egg-shaped leaves, and white to cream-coloured flowers.
Description
Commersonia corniculata is an erect to prostrate shrub that typically grows to high and wide and its new growth densely covered with white, star-shaped hairs. The leaves are egg-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long with stipules long at the base. The edges of the leaves have 3 lobes and sometimes a heart-shaped base and are rolled under, the lower surface densely covered with star-shaped hairs. The flowers are arranged in clusters of 5 to 15 up to long on a peduncle long, each flower in diameter on a pedicel long. The flowers have five white to cream-coloured, petal-like sepals, five white petals with a linear ligule about the same length as the sepals, and a single white staminode between each pair of stamens. Flowering occurs from August to December and the fruit is a spherical capsule in diameter.Taxonomy
Commersonia corniculata was first formally described as Lasiopetalum corniculatum in 1822 by the English botanist James Edward Smith, from material gathered at King George Sound by Archibald Menzies. In 2018, Kelly Anne Shepherd and Carolyn Wilkins examined the material and determined that it matched the later described species, Commersonia cygnorum. Since Lasiopetalum corniculatum is the first legitimate description of the plant, the name needed to be changed to Commersonia corniculata.The specific epithet means "corniculate", referring to the tips of the petals.