Androcalva beeronensis
{{Short description|Species of shrub}}
{{Speciesbox
| name =
| image = Androcalva beeronensis.jpg
| image_caption = Isotype in the National Herbarium of New South Wales
| status =
| status_system =
| genus = Androcalva
| species = beeronensis
| authority = (Guymer) C.F.Wilkins & Whitlock{{cite web |title=Androcalva beeronensis |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/235995|website=Australian Plant Census |access-date=8 April 2023}}
|synonyms =
- Commersonia beeronensis Guymer
- Commersonia sp. 'Beeron' (P.I.Forster PIF4658)
- Commersonia sp. (Beeron P.I.Forster PIF4658)
- Commersonia sp. 2 (Beeron; P.I.Forster 4658)
}}
Androcalva beeronensis is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and is endemic to Queensland. It is a shrub that forms suckers from rhizomes and has branchlets and leaves covered with soft, golden hairs, the leaves egg-shaped to lance-shaped with toothed edges, and clusters of 9 to 24 cream-coloured to white flowers.
Description
Androcalva beeronensis is a shrub that typically grows to {{cvt|1.0–2.5|m}} high, {{cvt|1–2|m}} wide, forms suckers from rhizomes, and has its new growth covered with golden, star-shaped hairs. The leaves are egg-shaped to lance-shaped, {{cvt|50–120|mm}} long and {{cvt|10–40|mm}} wide on a petiole {{cvt|4–7|mm}} long with triangular stipules {{cvt|2–6|mm}} long at the base, but that fall off as the leaf matures. There are 24 to 30 pairs of teeth up to {{cvt|1|mm}} long on the edges of the leaves and both surfaces of the leaves are hairy. The flowers are arranged in dense clusters of 9 to 24 on a peduncle {{cvt|6–10|mm}} long, each flower on a pedicel {{cvt|2.5–5|mm}} long, with triangular bracts {{cvt|3–5|mm}} long at the base. The flowers are cream-coloured to white and {{cvt|6–8|mm}} in diameter with 5 petal-like sepals with star-shaped hairs on the outside. The petals are {{cvt|4.5–4.8|mm}} long with 3 lobes longer than the sepal lobes, and there are 3 staminodes, the central one spatula-shaped and all three longer than the sepal lobes. Flowering has been recorded from August to November.{{cite book |last1=Blake |first1=Trevor L. |title=Lantern bushes of Australia ; Thomasias & allied genera : a field and horticultural guide |date=2021 |publisher=Australian Plants Society, Keilor Plains Group |location=Victoria |isbn=9780646839301 |pages=98–99}}{{cite journal |last1=Guymer |first1=Gordon P. |title=New species of Commersonia J.R.Forst. & G.Forst. (Sterculiaceae) from Eastern Australia and Vanuatu. |journal=Austrobaileya |date=2005 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=236–238 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/281425#page/242/mode/1up |access-date=8 April 2023}}
Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 2005 by Gordon Guymer who gave it the name Commersonia beeronensis in the journal Austrobaileya from specimens collected by Paul Irwin Forster in Beeron Holding in 1996.{{cite web|title=Commersonia beeronensis|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/601990|publisher=APNI|access-date=8 April 2023}} In 2011, Carolyn Wilkins and Barbara Whitlock transferred the species to Androcalva as A. beeronensis in Australian Systematic Botany.{{cite web|title=Androcalva beeronensis|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/726897|publisher=APNI|access-date=8 April 2023}} The specific epithet (beeronensis) refers to Beeron Holding, the only known location for this species.