Thomasia stelligera is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a low, spreading shrub with scattered, narrowly oblong leaves, and racemes of mauve flowers.
Thomasia stelligera is a spreading, spindly shrub that typically grows to high and wide, its new growth covered with scaly hairs. The leaves are narrowly oblong, long and wide on a petiole long. The leaves are glabrous on the upper surface, covered with silvery hairs on the lower surface and have wavy edges. The flowers are arranged in racemes of 2 to 4 on a thin peduncle long, each flower on a pedicel long with scaly bracteoles at the base. The flowers are up to in diameter, the sepals mauve and scaly, the petals tiny. Flowering occurs from August to October.[1]
This species was first formally described in 1852 by Nikolai Turczaninow who gave it the name Lasiopetalum stelligerum in the Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou.[2] [3] In 1863, George Bentham transferred the species to the genus Thomasia in Flora Australiensis.[4] The specific epithet (stelligera) means "starry" or "star-bearing".[5]
This thomasia grows in heath and shrubland between the Oldfield River, Jerramungup and Denmark in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest, Mallee and Warren bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
Thomasia stelligera is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.