Androcalva lachna is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and is endemic to the far west of Western Australia. It is an erect shrub with egg-shaped leaves, and heads of 4 to 12 white and pink flowers.
Androcalva lachna is an erect shrub that typically grows to high and wide, and has hairy young stems. Its leaves are egg-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long with stipules long at the base. The edges of the leaves are rolled under and have irregular serrations, both surfaces densely covered with white, star-shaped and glandular hairs. The flowers are arranged in heads of 4 to 12 on a peduncle long, each flower on a pedicel long, with triangular bracts long at the base. The flowers are wide with 5 white, petal-like sepals with a pink base, and 5 petals, the ligule shorter than the sepal lobes. There are 3 staminodes between each pair of stamens. Flowering occurs from August to November.[1]
Androcalva lachna was first formally described in 2011 by Carolyn Wilkins in Australian Systematic Botany from specimens collected north of Carnarvon by Alison Marjorie Ashby in 1969.[2] The specific epithet (lachna) means "soft wool", referring to the leaves.[3]
This species grows on the slopes of sand dunes and in the swales with spinifex, in the Kennedy Range National Park] and north of Carnarvon.
Androcalva lachna is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.