Asterolasia grandiflora is a species of weak, open shrub or sub-shrub that is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It has oblong, elliptical or egg-shaped leaves and pink to mauve flowers arranged in umbels of about three flowers with a thick covering of star-shaped hairs on the back of the petals.
Asterolasia grandiflora is a weak, open shrub or sub-shrub that typically grows to a height of 20–60 cm (7.9–23.6 in). The leaves are oblong, elliptical or egg-shaped, 4–20 mm (0.16–0.79 in) long and 1.5–6 mm (0.059–0.236 in) wide on a short petiole. The upper surface of the leaves has star-shaped hairs when young but the lower surface is densely covered with star-shaped hairs. The flowers are arranged in three or four in leaf axils and on the ends of branchlets, each flower on a pedicel 5–17 mm (0.20–0.67 in) long and covered with thick, star-shaped hairs. The petals are pink to mauve, broadly elliptical to egg-shaped, 6–15 mm (0.24–0.59 in) long and 3–9 mm (0.12–0.35 in) wide, with thick-centred, star-shaped hairs on the back that formed a shield over the flower bud. There are between twelve and twenty-four stamens.[2][3][4]
This species was first formally described in 1863 by William Jackson Hooker who gave it the name Phebalium grandiflorum and published the description in Icones Plantarum.[5][6] In 1863, George Bentham changed the name to Asterolasia grandiflora, publishing the change in Flora Australiensis.[7][8]
Asterolasia grandiflora grows on breakaways and hills mostly between Toodyay and York in Western Australia.[2][3]
Asterolasia grandiflora is classified as "Priority Four" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife,[2] meaning that is rare or near threatened.[9]
Habit Asterolasia grandiflora is a species of weak, open shrub or sub-shrub that is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It has oblong, elliptical or egg-shaped leaves and pink to mauve flowers arranged in umbels of about three flowers with a thick covering of star-shaped hairs on the back of the petals.
