Thomasia pygmaea is a small shrub which is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

.

It grows to between 0.05 and 0.3 metres in height. Flowers are produced between August and November in its native range. These are pinkish-mauve and covered with small red dots.

The species was first formally described by botanist Nicolai Stepanovitch Turczaninow

Nicolai Stepanovitch Turczaninow

Porphir Kiril Nicolai Stepanowitsch Turczaninow was a Ukrainian-Russian botanist who first identified several genera, and many species of plants...

 in Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou in 1806. He gave it the name Asterochiton pygmaeus . George Bentham

George Bentham

George Bentham CMG FRS was an English botanist, characterized by Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century".- Formative years :...

 transferred the species to the genus Thomasia

Thomasia

Thomasia is a genus of plants which are native to southern Australia. All but one species is restricted to the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia; the other occurs in South Australia and Victoria.Species include:...

in 1863.

Cultivation

Thomasia pygmaea is an attractive small shrub, useful for edging, container growing or in rockeries. It requires a light soil with good drainage and tolerates some shade and light frost.