Hannafordia F.Muell.

Scientific Description

Family Sterculiaceae.

(Subfamily Byttnerioideae), Tribe Lasiopetalae.

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; shortly petiolate. Petioles wingless. Leaves with ‘normal’ orientation; simple; not peltate. Leaf blades neither inverted nor twisted through 90 degrees; dorsiventral; entire; flat; ovate, or oblong, or elliptic; pinnately veined; cross-venulate; obtuse. Mature leaf blades adaxially pubescent (densely stellate hairy); abaxially pubescent (densely stellate hairy). Leaves without stipules. Leaf blade margins entire. 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’, or solitary; not crowded at the stem bases. Inflorescence few-flowered. Flowers in racemes. Inflorescences simple; axillary. Flowers pedicellate; bracteate; ebracteolate; small; regular; not resupinate; neither papilionaceous or pseudo-papilionaceous; 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Floral receptacle with neither androphore nor gynophore. 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 glabrous; exceeding the corolla; regular; neither appendaged nor spurred. Calyx lobes subattenuate. Epicalyx present (of 2 or 3 linear free segments). Corolla present; 5; 1 -whorled. Androecium present. Fertile stamens present. Androecial members definite in number. Androecium 20. Androecial members branched (staminodes in groups of 3 alternating with the stamens); free of the perianth; free of the gynoecium; markedly unequal (stamens short, staminodes in groups of 3, 1 in each group linear, 2 in each group narrow linear); free of one another, or coherent (stamens and staminodes shortly connate at the base into staminal tube); 1 - adelphous; 1 -whorled. Androecium including staminodes. Staminodes 15; non-petaloid. Stamens 5; all more or less similar in shape; isomerous with the perianth; alternisepalous; filantherous. Anthers separate from one another; all alike; bilocular. Fertile gynoecium present. Gynoecium 3 carpelled, or 4 carpelled. The pistil 3 celled, or 4 celled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 3 locular, or 4 locular; sessile (hairy). Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; simple; apical. Stigmas 1; 1 - lobed. Placentation axile. Ovules several.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit 6–8 mm long; hairy; dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules loculicidal. Fruit 3 celled, or 4 celled. Dispersal unit the seed. Seeds several.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. Endemic to Australia. Australian states and territories: Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales. A genus of ca 3 species; 3 species in Western Australia; 0 endemic to Western Australia.

Additional comments. Named after Samuel Hannaford, 1828–1874, an Australian naturalist.