Citation: Dunal ex Poiret, Encyc. Meth. Bot. Suppl. 3:764 ( 1814).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Flannel bush.

Description:
An erect rounded shrub 0.2-1 rarely 2 m tall, sparingly clonal; stems lasting several years, becoming woody, sometimes darkening at the base and becoming almost black with age; prickles to 5 mm long, pale, fine, straight, generally present on the stems, abundant on the fruiting calyx, less common on petioles, peduncles and pedicels, rare or absent on leaves; all parts densely and closely pubescent with pale stellate hairs, looser and almost floccose on the fruiting calyx, growing points and buds often suffused with purple, general aspect grey-green; leaves concolorous, variable in size, 2.5-8 x 1.5-7 cm, ovate to broad-elliptic, entire or very rarely with a shallowly lobed margin, apex rounded, base truncate or rounded; petiole 0.5-1.5 cm long, relatively thick.

Inflorescence a short cyme of 2-6 flowers from an extra-axillary position; peduncle c. 1 cm long, pedicel c. 1 cm long; calyx tube 5-7 mm long; lobes 3-5 mm long, bluntly triangular, acumens not developed; corolla 2.5-3 cm diam., rotate-pentagonal, purple, showy; filaments 1-2 mm long; anthers 4-5 mm long, oblong, tapering, firmly erect in cone; ovary glabrous; style 10-12 mm long, erect, slightly sigmoid; stigma pale, terminal on a recurved tip of the style; fruiting peduncle and axis 1-6 cm long; pedicels c. 1 cm long, recurved; calyx 1-1.5 cm diam., accrescent, globular to ovate, enclosing the fruit, densely pubescent and prickly; calyx lobes not greatly enlarged nor prickly; orifice small.

Berry 10-13 mm diam., globular or distinctly ovoid, yellowish at maturity, finally drying hard and woody; seeds 2-3 mm long, pale or light-brown, scarcely reticulate.

	Flowering and fruiting branch and a fruit.
Image source: fig. 576C in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Symon (1981)J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 4:220.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: NW, LE, GT, EP.   W.Aust.; N.T. Conservation status: native Flowering time: May — Sept.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available