''Thomasia sarotes'' is a flowering plant 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 o ...

. It is an upright, spreading shrub with white, pinkish or purple flowers 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 els ...

to the south-west of Western Australia.

Description

''Thomasia sarotes'' is an upright, spreading perennial shrub with branches covered in star-shaped hairs and grows to high and in wide. The flowers are purple, pink or white with 5 papery petal-like

sepals A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

. Flowering occurs from August to December and the fruit is a capsule.

Taxonomy and naming

The species was first formally described in 1852 by botanist

Nikolai Turczaninow Nikolai Stepanovich Turczaninow ( ru , Николай Степанович Турчанинов, 1796 in Nikitovka, now in Krasnogvardeysky District, Belgorod Oblast, Russia – 1863 in Kharkov) was a Russian botanist and plant collector wh ...

and the description was published in ''

Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to: Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals) * Bulletin (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper * ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008) ** Bulletin Debate, ...

''. 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 ...

(''sarotes'') means "broom like".

Distribution and habitat

This thomasia grows in clay, sand, granitic and rocky soils on low ridges and dunes in the

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low reli ...

, Coolgardie and Mallee.

References

Rosids of Western Australia Plants described in 1852 sarotes Taxa named by Nikolai Turczaninow {{Australia-rosid-stub