''Melhania dehnhardtii'' is a plant in the family

Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar ...

. It is named for the German explorers

Clemens Clemens is both a Late Latin masculine given name and a surname meaning "merciful". Notable people with the name include: Surname * Adelaide Clemens (born 1989), Australian actress. * Andrew Clemens (b. 1852 or 1857–1894), American folk artist * ...

and Gustav Denhardt.

Description

''Melhania dehnhardtii'' grows as a suffrutex (subshrub) up to tall. The elliptic to

ovate Ovate may refer to: * Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe *Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd *Vates In modern English, the nouns vates () and ova ...

leaves are

tomentose Trichomes (); ) are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a pl ...

and measure up to long.

Inflorescences An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed ...

are solitary or two or three-flowered, on a stalk measuring up to long. The flowers have bright yellow petals.

Distribution and habitat

''Melhania dehnhardtii'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Kenya's Kilifi District where it is known from fewer than five sites. Its habitat is in ''Acacia-Commiphora'' bushland to altitudes of about .

References

dehnhardtii Endemic flora of Kenya Plants described in 1899 {{Malvaceae-stub