''Commersonia rugosa'' is a species of flowering plant in the family
Malvaceae and
endemic to New South Wales. It is an open, straggly shrub with linear to narrowly egg-shaped leaves with irregular teeth or lobes on the edges, and white flowers in clusters of 3 to 15.
Description
''Commersonia rugosa'' is an open, straggly shrub that typically grows to high and wide, its new growth covered with brownish, star-shaped hairs. The leaves are linear to narrowly egg-shaped, long and wide on a
petiole long with
stipules long at the base. The edges of the leaves are irregularly toothed or lobed and rolled under, the upper surface wrinkled with prominent impressed veins, and the lower surface densely covered with velvety hairs. The flowers are arranged in crowded clusters of 3 to 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, each flower on a
pedicel up to long with a narrow
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 ...
long at the base. The flowers are about wide with five white, petal-like
sepals that have fine, white star-shaped hairs on the back, and petals with a narrow, hairy
ligule A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses (Poaceae) and sedges. A ligule is also a strap-shaped extension of the corolla, such as that of a ...
. Flowering occurs from August to November and the fruit is a hairy, bristly
capsule in diameter.
Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 1846 by
Joachim Steetz who gave it the name ''Rulingia rugosa'' in
Lehmann's ''
Plantae Preissianae''.
In 1882,
Ferdinand von Mueller
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...
transferred the species to ''Commersonia'' as ''C. rugosa'' in his ''
Systematic Census of Australian Plants''.
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 ...
(''rugosa'') means "wrinkled".
Distribution and habitat
''Commersonia rugosa'' mainly grows near creeks in forest or woodland, sometimes on hillsides or the summit of ranges and occurs south of the
Royal National Park in New South Wales, to
Orbost in Victoria, where it was first recorded in 2020 following bushfires.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q17579753
rugosa
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Victoria (state)
Plants described in 1846
Taxa named by Joachim Steetz