Commersonia breviseta
C.F.Wilkins & L.M.Copel.Decumbent or erect shrub to 3 m high. Leaves narrow-elliptic to narrowly ovate, 0.8–2.4 cm long, 0.1–0.6 cm wide, irregularly toothed, upper surface green, densely stellate-tomentose, undersurface pale green, densely stellate-tomentose, with long and short hairs; petioles 1–6 mm long. Inflorescence 4–16-flowered. Calyx segments 3.4–6.4 mm long, 1.3–2.7 mm wide, stellate-hairy on both surfaces; petals usually c. half the length of calyx segments, usually somewhat stellate-hairy; anther filaments glabrous; staminodes 5, stellate-hairy. Capsule 4.5–5.5 mm diam., moderate-dense stellate-hairy with or without scattered glandular trichomes to 0.1 mm long; setae 0.5–0.9 mm long, restricted to upper half of fruit; shaft of setae with scattered stellate hairs and/or glandular trichomes to 0.1 mm long; apex of setae with erect and horizontal hairs.
EGL. Qld, NSW, Vic. Known only to occur in rocky areas in dry open-forest near Genoa Peak in far eastern Victoria. This species is thought to be an obligate seeder, recruiting abundantly following fire.
Commersonia breviseta resembles C. dasyphylla, the latter typically has acute leaves c. 5 cm long with regularly toothed margins, and capsules that are sparsely stellate-hairy, but with setae > 2 mm long with long reflexed hairs at the tip. Whereas leaves of C. breviseta are typically blunt, less than 3 cm long, with sinuate or hardly toothed margins, and capsules are moderately to densely stellate hairy, but with very short setae (to 1 mm long) that har erect and horizontal hairs at the tip. Also see note under C. rugosa.
Wilkins, C.F.; Whitlock, B.A (2011). A revision of Commersonia including Rulingia (Malvaceae s.l. or Byttneriaceae). *Australian Systematic Botany * 24(5): 226–283.
