Commersonia rotundifolia
species of plant
Commersonia rotundifolia, commonly known as round-leaved rulingia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an upright, openly-branched shrub with elliptic to round leaves with wavy edges, and white flowers in clusters of 3 to 10.
Description
Commersonia rotundifolia is an upright, openly-branched shrub that typically grows to 60–100 cm (24–39 in) high and about 60 cm (24 in) wide, its new growth densely covered with white, star-shaped hairs. The leaves are elliptic to more or less round, 1–7 mm (0.039–0.276 in) long and wide on a petiole 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) long with stipules 1–4 mm (0.039–0.157 in) long at the base. The edges of the leaves are wavy, sometimes with rounded teeth, the upper surface with prominent veins, and the lower surface densely covered with whitish, star-shaped hairs. The flowers are arranged in crowded clusters of 3 to 10 on a peduncle 2–10 mm (0.079–0.394 in) long, each flower on a hairy pedicel 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) long with a narrow bract 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) long at the base. The flowers are about 10 mm (0.39 in) wide with five white, petal-like sepals that are hairy on the back, and petals with a narrow, spatula-shaped ligule. Flowering occurs from July to September and the fruit is a hairy, bristly capsule about 2 mm (0.079 in) long.
Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 1852 by Nikolai Turczaninow who gave it the name Rulingia rotundifolia in the Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou from specimens collected by James Drummond. In 1882, Ferdinand von Mueller transferred the species to Commersonia as C. rotundifolia in his Systematic Census of Australian Plants.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Commersonia rotundifolia” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 29, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q17579754. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1852 and 1882.
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This entry incorporates text from “Commersonia rotundifolia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.