Sida corrugata

Sida corrugata, the corrugated sida or variable sida, is a sprawling to ascending perennial herb or subshrub in the Malvaceae widely distributed across mainland Australia and naturalised in adjacent regions. It typically grows 15-50 cm tall from a woody rootstock, with slender, ribbed stems clothed in a fine, stellate, often greyish pubescence. The leaves are alternate, ovate to narrowly oblong, 1-4 cm long, with crenate to shallowly toothed margins and a deeply impressed venation on the upper surface that gives the foliage a characteristic corrugated or wrinkled texture. Solitary, yellow to orange-yellow flowers about 1-1.5 cm across are produced on short axillary peduncles through much of the year; each has five spreading, asymmetric petals and a central column of fused stamens typical of the family. Fruits are schizocarpic, separating at maturity into several wedge-shaped, beaked mericarps. The species occurs in dry grasslands, open woodland, and disturbed pastoral country.