Lasiopetalum bracteatum, commonly known as Helena velvet bush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and is endemic to the south-west Western Australia. It is an erect, spreading shrub with egg-shaped leaves and loose groups pinkish flowers.
Lasiopetalum bracteatum is an erect, spreading shrub typically high and wide, its young stems covered with star-shaped hairs. The leaves are egg-shaped, the edges curved downwards, mostly long and wide on a petiole long. The surfaces of the leaves are sparsely to densely covered with star-shaped hairs. The flowers are arranged in loose groups of 8 to 22 long, the peduncle hairy and long, each flower on a pedicel long with an elliptic bract long at the base. The sepals are bright pink to mauve-pink with a dark red base, long with lobes long and the five petals are about long and glabrous. Flowering occurs from August to November and the fruit is an elliptic capsule long.[1]
This species was first formally described in 1839 by Stephan Endlicher who gave it the name Corethrostylis bracteata in Novarum Stirpium Decades.[2] [3] In 1863, George Bentham changed the name to Lasiopetalum bracteatum in Flora Australiensis.[4] The specific epithet (bracteatum) means "bracteate".[5]
This lasiopetalum grows near creeks and drainage lines and near granite outcrops in the Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia.
Lasiopetalum bracteatum is listed as "Priority Four" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that is rare or near threatened.[6]