Small Poranthera
Fruit
Clustered Lawrencia
Seedling, profile
| Small Poranthera Fruit | | Clustered Lawrencia Seedling, profile | | ||
 | Class: | Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) | |||
| Order: | Hibisci (Malvales) | ||||
| Family: | Mallow (Malvaceae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Clustered Lawrencia (Lawrencia glomerata) | ||||
| This Photo: | Seedling, above | ||||
| 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. | |||||
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