''Commersonia apella'', commonly known as many-flowered commersonia, is a small, upright shrub in the family

Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Western Australia. It has hairy leaves and whitish flowers.

Description

''Commersonia apella'' is an upright, spreading shrub, high and wide. The new growth stems are

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

or have short stalks, glandular, yellowish, and covered with star-shaped hairs. The leaves are oval-shaped, margins finely toothed, grey-green on upper surface with a thick covering of short, matted, star-shaped, sessile, white hairs, paler underneath and slightly wrinkled and soft, long, wide and the older leaf petioles long and rounded or pointed at the apex. The inflorescence are borne opposite a leaf on a flowering branch long in clusters of 3-15 on a

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

long, individual flowers on stalk long. The

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

and peduncle are both thickly covered with sessile, yellow or white star-shaped hairs. The

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s are oval or narrowly elliptic shaped, long, wide, buds blunt at the base, apex rounded and ribbed. The

calyx Calyx or calyce (plural "calyces"), from the Latin ''calix'' which itself comes from the Ancient Greek ''κάλυξ'' (''kálux'') meaning "husk" or "pod", may refer to: Biology * Calyx (anatomy), collective name for several cup-like structures ...

are green near the base, oval-shaped, white, long, pointed at the apex, upper surface smooth, simple or star-shaped hairs, lower surface thickly covered with white, star-shaped hairs. The flower petals are yellowish-cream, long, wide and swollen near the base. The fruit is ellipsoid shaped, about long and covered with thick, soft, star-shaped hairs.

Taxonomy and naming

''Commersonia apella'' was first formally described in 2011 by Carolyn F. Wilkins and the description was published in '' Australian Systematic Botany''.The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''apella'') means "without a bowl".

Distribution and habitat

Many-flowered commersonia grows in sandy clay in woodland, forest and coastal location between Pemberton and Esperance.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17579770

apella The ecclesia or ekklesia (Greek: ἐκκλησία) was the citizens' assembly in the Ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. Unlike its more famous counterpart in Athens, the Spartan assembly had limited powers, as it did not debate; citizens coul ...

Endemic flora of Western Australia Rosids of Western Australia Plants described in 2011 Taxa named by Carolyn F. Wilkins