Commersonia bartramia.
The Brown Kurrajong, in Family Malvaceae, is seen in cultivation in Brisbane.
They are rapidly growing trees with horizontal lateral branches.
Seen as a shrub or tree up to 12 m tall but it can grow to 25 m.
There are white lenticels on the small branches.
There are large and small stellate hairs on most parts.
Leaves are alternate in 2 ranks and on petioles about 2 cm long.
Deciduous stipules, 0.5 to nearly 3 cm long, have stellate hairs.
The wide or narrowly ovate adult leaves are up to 17 cm long by 13 cm wide.
The tip is pointed, the base flattish or oblique and the edge irregularly toothed.
Juvenile leaves, much larger than adult ones, have 3 (to 5) lobes.
Some adult leaves have traces of lobes.
Tinted young leaves have rust coloured, stellate hairs.
Adult leaves have dense, white, stellate hairs on the lower surface.
The upper surface can be smooth or have some hairs.
There are some simple hairs with red glands.
Branched inflorescences are mainly opposite the leaf bases.
Each can have many white to cream flowers under 1 cm across.
The bisexual flowers have parts in 5’s.
The 3 mm long sepals and petals have stellate hairs.
The petals are spoon-like with a concave cup at the base and a linear appendage.
There are hairs on some parts of the petals.
The stamens, on short filaments, lie in the concave petal base.
There are small glands at the base of the filaments.
The bright red anthers open laterally via longitudinal slits.
The bases of the stamen filaments are fused to the bases of the staminodes.
The narrowly triangular white staminodes have stellate hairs on both surfaces.
Initially curved inwards they later curve outwards to expose the stigma and ovary.
Fruit are globular, 5-chambered, loculicidal capsules up to 2 cm across.
They are covered in bristles up to 8 mm long that have stellate hairs.
The dark seeds, up to 2 mm long, are attached to the placenta with an orange stalk.
J.F.
