Skip to main content

Service Notice

The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system, WAHerb, and DBCA’s flora taxonomic names application, WACensus, have been set to read-only mode since 1 October 2025. Recent taxonomic changes are not currently being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or the census. Due to the rapidly approaching holiday season and associated agency and facility soft closures, along with the substantial work involved in data mapping, cleaning, and verification, the migration to the new collection management software is not expected to occur before 1 March 2026, when a further update will be provided. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

The notice period started at 9:45 am on Friday, 12 December 2025 +08:00 and will end at 12:00 pm on Monday, 2 March 2026 +08:00.

Advanced Search

Commersonia J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.

Reference
Char.Gen.Pl. 43, Tab.22 (1775)
Name Status
Current

Scientific Description

Family Sterculiaceae.

(Subfamily Byttnerioideae), Tribe Byttnerieae, sometimes misspelt Commerconia.

Habit and leaf form. Shrubs; evergreen; non-laticiferous and without coloured juice. ‘Normal’ plants. Leaves well developed. Plants with roots; non-succulent. Leaves cauline. To 1 m high. Self supporting. Mesophytic. Not heterophyllous. Leaves small, or medium-sized; alternate; with blades; petiolate, or subsessile; with ‘normal’ orientation; simple; not peltate. Leaf blades neither inverted nor twisted through 90 degrees; dorsiventral; dissected; flat; ovate, or obovate; pinnately veined. Mature leaf blades adaxially pubescent (sparsely stellate hairy); abaxially pubescent (white stellate hairy). Leaves with stipules. Stipules caducous. Leaf blade margins entire, or crenate (‘undulate’); revolute. Leaf anatomy. Hairs present; complex hairs present. Complex hairs stellate.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite. Plants homostylous.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; not crowded at the stem bases. Inflorescence few-flowered. Flowers in cymes. Inflorescences simple; axillary. Flowers pedicellate; bracteate. Bracts deciduous. Flowers small; regular; not resupinate; neither papilionaceous or pseudo-papilionaceous; 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx present; 5; 1 -whorled; gamosepalous; lobed. Calyx lobes markedly longer than the tube. Calyx hairy (stellate hairy outside, finely stellate hairy, or with simple hairs inside); exceeding the corolla, or more or less equalling the corolla; regular; neither appendaged nor spurred; white (‘whitish’ Jessop (1986)). Epicalyx absent. Corolla present; 5; 1 -whorled; appendiculate (ligulate in upper portion); polypetalous; regular. Androecium present. Fertile stamens present. Androecial members definite in number. Androecium 10. Androecial members branched (‘staminodes tripartite’); free of the perianth; free of the gynoecium; markedly unequal; free of one another; 1 -whorled. Androecium including staminodes. Stamens 5; all more or less similar in shape; isomerous with the perianth; alternisepalous; all opposite the corolla members; filantherous. Filaments filiform. Anthers separate from one another; all alike; extrorse; bilocular. Fertile gynoecium present. Gynoecium 5 carpelled. The pistil 5 celled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 5 locular; sessile. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 5; free (‘adhering to form a column’); simple; apical. Stigmas 1; 1 - lobed; capitate. Placentation axile.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit hairy (‘usually pubescent’); dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules loculicidal. Fruit 5 celled. Dispersal unit the seed. Seeds 1 per locule, or 2 per locule.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia, or adventive. Endemic to Australia, or not endemic to Australia. A genus of ca 12 species; ca 6 species in Western Australia.

Additional comments. Named after the French naturalist Philibert Commerson, 1727–1773, who sailed with the Bougainville expedition in 1766 and died on Mauritius.