Lasiopetalum molle, commonly known as soft leaved lasiopetalum, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect or spreading subshrub or shrub with hairy stems, thick and stiff egg-shaped leaves and pink flowers.
Lasiopetalum molle is an erect or spreading subshrub or shrub that typically grows to a height of, its young stems densely woolly-hairy with star-shaped hairs. The leaves are egg-shaped, mostly long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are borne in dense clusters of nine to eleven flowers on a hairy peduncle long, the individual flowers on pedicels long with egg-shaped bracts long at the base. There are also pinkish, egg-shaped bracteoles long below the base of the sepals. The sepals are pink and petal-like, long and joined near the base, the lobes long. There are no petals and the anthers are long on a filament long. Flowering occurs from July to October.[1]
Lasiopetalum molle was first formally described in 1863 by George Bentham in Flora Australiensis from specimens collected by James Drummond in the Swan River Colony.[2] [3] The specific epithet (molle) means "soft".[4]
This lasiopetalum grows in open mallee woodland from Wongan Hills to Newdegate in the Avon Wheatbelt and Mallee biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia.
Lasiopetalum molle is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.