Guichenotia quasicalva
Guichenotia quasicalva is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a low, spindly shrub with narrowly egg-shaped to linear leaves and pink flowers in groups of two to four.
Description
Guichenotia quasicalva is a spindly shrub that typically grows to high and wide, its new growth covered with golden, star-shaped hairs. Its leaves are narrowly egg-shaped to linear, long and wide on a petiole long with stipules long at the base. The edges of the leaves are turned down, and both surface are sparsely covered with star-shaped hairs. The flowers are arranged in cymes of two to four, each flower in diameter on a peduncle long. Each flower is on a pedicel long with bracts long and bracteoles about long. The petal-like sepals are pink, joined at the base and glabrous inside, the outer surface covered with scattered, star-shaped hairs. There are tiny, deep red petals but no staminodes. Flowering occurs in September and October.
Guichenotia quasicalva was first formally described in 2003 by Carolyn F. Wilkins and the description was published in Australian Systematic Botany. The specific epithet means "almost bald", referring to the sparse covering of hairs on the stems, leaves and sepals.
Distribution and habitat
This species of guichenotia grows in wet-wet places and near creeks in dense shrubland and open mallee in three populations near Eneabba in the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
Conservation status
Guichenotia quasicalva is listed as "Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.