Common Name

Thorny Fan-leaf, Thorny Lawrencia, Fan-leaved Lawrencia

Family

Malvaceae

Notes

Shrub to 1.5m tall. Branchlets often spine-tipped. Leaves fleshy, alternating up the stems or clustered, 0.3-2cm long, to 10mm wide, linear to nearly circular, flat or sometimes channelled above, hairless, scaly or hairy, with blunt or 3-toothed tips. Male and female flowers on separate plants. Flowers often small (less than 3mm across), white, cream, yellow or red, with 5 petals, scarsely longer than the calyx, solitary or few at the bases of the leaves, forming leafy spikes up the stems.

Description and photo (as Selenothamnus squamatus) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 492

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

Photos by AJ Brown © State of Victoria, Department of Environment and Primary Industries 2013. Victorian Resources Online www.dpi.vic.gov.au/vro. Reproduced with permission.