Lasiopetalum laxiflorum
Lasiopetalum laxiflorum is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a sticky, straggling subshrub or shrub with many densely hairy stems, egg-shaped leaves, and bright pink and dark red flowers. Description
Lasiopetalum laxiflorum is a sticky, straggling shrub or subshrub typically  high and  wide with many stems densely covered with woolly, white and rust-coloured, star-shaped hairs. The leaves are egg-shaped, mostly  long and  wide, both surfaces covered with star-shaped hairs. The flowers are borne in leaf axils in groups  long with 6 to 25 flowers on a peduncle  long, each flower on a pedicel  long with very narrow egg-shaped or linear bracts at the base. There are three similar bracteoles  long near the base of the sepals. The sepals are bright pink with a dark red base,  long with lobes  long. The back of the sepals is sticky with dark red glandular hairs. The petals are dark red and egg-shaped  long and the anthers are dark red with a white tip and  long. Flowering has been recorded from October to January. Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 1863 by George Bentham who gave it the name Thomasia laxiflora in Flora Australiensis from specimens collected by James Drummond in the Swan River Colony. In 1881, Ferdinand von Mueller changed the name to Lasiopetalum laxiflorum in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae. The specific epithet (laxiflorum) means "loose- or open-flowered". Distribution and habitat
Lasiopetalum laxiflorum grows in woodland and forest in or near the Whicher Range in the Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia. Conservation status
Lasiopetalum laxiflorum is listed as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat. References

laxiflorum
Malvales of Australia
Rosids of Western Australia
Plants described in 1863
Taxa named by George Bentham