Family: Malvaceae
Commersonia
Citation:
Forster & Forster f., Char. Gen. Pl. 43 (1776).
Derivation: After the French naturalist Philibert Commerson, 1727-1773, who sailed with the Bougainville expedition in 1766 and died on Mauritius.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Densely stellately hairy evergreen shrubs (in S.Aust.) or trees; leaves with caducous brown stipules, toothed or lobed, with obscure pinnate venation, usually shortly petiolate.
Flowers bisexual, in few-flowered axillary cymes; bracts caducous; epicalyx 0; calyx petaloid, deeply 5-lobed; petals 5, usually shorter than the sepals, with the lower margins incurved to embrace the anthers and an upper flat ligulate portion; stamens 5, free, short, opposite the petals, extrorse; staminodes 5, 3-partite or 3-toothed with the middle lobe or tooth the largest; ovary sessile, 5-celled, with 2-6 ovules in each cell, almost glabrous at first but tuberculate; styles 5, adhering to form a column, free, very slender; stigma small, capitate.
Capsule usually pubescent, opening loculicidally in 5 valves; seeds 1 or 2 in each cell.
Distribution:
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12 species, native to Australia and south-eastern Asia.
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Biology:
No text
Taxonomic notes:
Sometimes misspelt Commerconia.
Author:
Not yet available
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