Thomasia solanacea is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, bushy shrub with egg-shaped leaves, the bases heart-shaped, and racemes of white, cream-coloured or pink to purple flowers.
Thomasia solanacea is an erect, bushy shrub that typically grows to high and wide, its new growth covered with scaly, star-shaped hairs. The leaves are egg-shaped with a heart-shaped base, long and wide on a petiole up to long with stipules up to long at the base. The leaves have irregular edges and are covered with star-shaped hairs. The flowers are arranged in racemes of 4 to 9 on a hairy peduncle about long, each flower on a pedicel long with linear bracteoles at the base. The flowers are in diameter, the sepals white, cream-coloured or pink to purple, the petals, anthers and staminodes deep red. Flowering occurs from September to December.[1]
This species was first formally described in 1812 by Sims who gave it the name Lasiopetalum solaceum in the Botanical Magazine.[2] [3] In 1821, Jaques Étienne Gay transferred the species to the genus Thomasia in the journal Mémoires du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle.[4] The specific epithet (solanacea) means "Solanum-like".[5]
Thomasia solanacea usually grows as an undershrub in woodland and occurs between Denmark, the Stirling Range and Mount Manypeaks in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest and Warren bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
Thomasia solanacea is listed as "Priority Four" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is rare or near threatened.[6]