Commersonia magniflora

Commersonia magniflora is an erect shrub that typically grows to {{cvt|1–3|m}} high and wide, its new growth covered with downy hairs. The leaves are narrowly oblong to elliptic or egg-shaped, {{cvt|10–40|mm}} long and {{cvt|6–12|mm}} wide on a petiole {{cvt|1–5|mm}} long with stipules {{cvt|2–8|mm}} long at the base. The upper surface of the leaves has the veins imprinted, giving it a wrinkled appearance, the edges are serrated and rolled under, and both surfaces are densely covered with star-shaped hairs. The flowers are arranged in groups of 3 to 10 on a peduncle {{cvt|4–15|mm}} long, each flower on a pedicel {{cvt|4–12|mm}} long. The flowers are {{cvt|15–20|mm}} wide with five deep pink, petal-like sepals joined for most of their length, and five cream-coloured petals that are much shorter than the sepals, the ligule narrowly oblong. There is a single, densely hairy staminode between each pair of stamens. Flowering occurs from May to December and the fruit is a hairy, elliptic capsule {{cvt|8|mm}} wide.{{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=192–193}}{{cite web |title=Rulingia magniflora |url=http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/cgi-bin/speciesfacts_display.cgi?form=speciesfacts&name=Rulingia_magniflora |publisher=State Herbarium of South Australia |access-date=20 March 2023}}{{cite web |title=Commersonia magniflora subsp. magniflora |url=http://eflora.nt.gov.au/factsheet?id=1050241 |publisher=Northern Territory Government |access-date=20 March 2023}}

This species was first formally described in 1874 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Rulingia magniflora in his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae,{{cite web|title=Rulingia magniflora|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/532296 |publisher=APNI|access-date=20 March 2023}}{{cite book |last1=von Mueller |first1=Ferdinand |title=Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae |volume=8 |date=1874 |publisher=Victorian Government Printer |location=Melbourne |pages=223–224 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/7225#page/224/mode/1up |access-date=20 March 2023}}

but in 1881 he transferred it to the genus, Commersonia in a later edition of Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae.{{cite web|title=Commersonia magniflora|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/488029 |publisher=APNI|access-date=20 March 2023}}{{cite book |last1=von Mueller |first1=Ferdinand |title=Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae |volume=11 |date=1881 |publisher=Victorian Government Printer |location=Melbourne |page=114 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/762072#page/115/mode/1up |access-date=20 March 2023}} The specific epithet (magniflora) means "large-flowered".{{cite book |last1=Sharr |first1=Francis Aubi |last2=George |first2=Alex |title=Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings |date=2019 |publisher=Four Gables Press |location=Kardinya, WA |isbn=9780958034180 |page=247 |edition=3rd}}

Commersonia magniflora occurs in two disjunct populations. It grows in rocky outcrops, gorges along creeks from Ormiston Gorge and Kings Canyon in the Northern Territory to the north-west corner of South Australia. A second population grows in open woodland and shrubland between Coolgardie and Cunderdin in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Mallee and Murchison bioregions of Western Australia.{{FloraBase|id=40926|name=Commersonia magniflora}}

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magniflora

Category:Flora of South Australia

Category:Flora of Western Australia

Category:Flora of the Northern Territory

Category:Plants described in 1874

Category:Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller