Clustered Lawrencia
Bisexual Flower
Ellura
Clustered Lawrencia
Male Flower
 
                      
Clustered Lawrencia (Lawrencia glomerata)Class: Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida)
Order: Hibisci (Malvales)
Family: Mallow (Malvaceae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Clustered Lawrencia (Lawrencia glomerata)
This Photo:     Bisexual Flower
Other name: Small golden-spike

Thank you Glenys and Graham Pearce for identifying and Dr Manfred Jusaitis for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
A small plant that dies off in the summer heat.
Seedlings look similar to Corrugated Sida. The basal leaves are much wider and have a large number of lobes/teeth compared with those on the flowering/fruiting stems; which are narrow & toothed on the tip or entire.
What strange flowers these have. The flowers appear petalless, but in fact have 5 translucent petals; showing as green & sometimes yellowish depending on the background. Flowers are defined as being bisexual, but there do seem to be male only flowers; while all flowers with female style also have anthers (that we've seen). Often the anthers seem a brilliant white; rather than yellow. This seems to only occur when female parts (styles) are present. Perhaps they have no pollen, but maintain the anther structure, making them a purely female flower? The male flowers tend to stand up like tiny little trees, where as the bisexual & female flowers primarily show the styles; the anther structures tend to stay smaller & closer to the calyx. In time the styles turn purple and shrivel up, leaving a little purple tip in the middle of the anther structures.
When fertilised, the sepals fold in, the petals dry and the fruit forms.

Copyright © 2020-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 12-Oct-2020
This species is classed as NT (Near Threatened) in the Murray Mallee, SA, by DENR (Regional Species Status Assessments, July 2010)