Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, ACT

Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, ACT

Flowers and leaves. Photo: Russell Best, Riddells Creek NW of Melbourne, Vic

Shrub. Photo: Russell Best, Big Desert, Vic

Common Name

Pink Velvet Bush

Family

Malvaceae

Notes

Shrub to 1.5m tall. Leaves alternating up the stems, 3-9cm long, 5-30mm wide, flat, almost hairless above and rusty hairy below, margins flat or turned down, with blunt tips. Flowers with 5 'petals' fused at the base, pink inside and white outside, in groups of 2-8 flowers on short stalks arising from the bases of the leaves or along the stems. A single record in the area covered by this key from the Pooncarie district (1997). Family Sterculiaceae in South Australia. Critically endangered NSW. Protected NSW.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Lasiopetalum~behrii

NSW Department of Environment & Heritage profile: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10450