Androcalva cuneata explained

Androcalva cuneata is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a low, spreading, densely hairy shrub that sometimes forms suckers and has wedge-shaped leaves and clusters of 5 to 15 pink flowers.

Description

Androcalva cuneata is a low, spreading, densely hairy, sometimes dense, suckering shrub that typically grows to high and wide. Its leaves are wedge-shaped, long and wide on a petiole long with narrowly egg-shaped stipules long at the base. The leaves are densely covered with white star-shaped hairs, and the edges are wavy or crumpled with irregular indentations. The flowers are arranged in clusters of 5 to 15 in upper leaf axils on a peduncle long, each flower on a pedicel long, with linear bracts long at the base. The flowers are in diameter with 5 pink, petal-like sepals covered with white, star-shaped hairs, and 5 cup-shaped petals, the ligules shorter than the sepals. There is a single hairy, egg-shaped staminode. Flowering occurs from September to January and the fruit is a rounded capsule about in diameter.[1]

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1852 by Nikolai Turczaninow who gave it the name Rulingia cuneata in the journal, Bulletin de la Société impériale des naturalistes de Moscou from specimens collected by James Drummond.[2] [3] In 2011, Carolyn Wilkins and Barbara Whitlock transferred the species to the genus Androcalva in Australian Systematic Botany.[4] The specific epithet means "wedge-shaped", referring to the leaves.[5]

Distribution and habitat

Androcalva cuneata grows in open woodland between Darkan and the Cape Arid National Park in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest and Mallee bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Blake . Trevor L. . Lantern bushes of Australia ; Thomasias & allied genera : a field and horticultural guide . 2021 . Australian Plants Society, Keilor Plains Group . Victoria . 9780646839301 . 104–105.
  2. Web site: Rulingia cuneata . Plants of the World Online . 9 March 2023.
  3. Turczaninow . Nikolai . Generum adhuc non descriptorum . Bulletin de la Société impériale des naturalistes de Moscou . 1852 . 3 . 151 . 9 March 2023.
  4. Web site: Androcalva cuneata. APNI. 9 March 2023.
  5. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 174 . 3rd.