Grevillea pulchella, commonly known as beautiful grevillea,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a spreading shrub usually with pinnatisect leaves, and cylindrical clusters of white to cream-coloured flowers.

Grevillea pulchella
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae
Genus: Grevillea
Species:
G. pulchella
Binomial name
Grevillea pulchella
Synonyms[1]

Anadenia pulchella R.Br.

Description edit

Grevillea pulchella is a spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.2–1.5 m (7.9 in – 4 ft 11.1 in). Its leaves are 20–75 mm (0.79–2.95 in) long, 10–50 mm (0.39–1.97 in) wide and usually pinnatisect with 5 to 19 lobes, each further divided with 3 to 5 triangular or linear lobes 2–18 mm (0.079–0.709 in) long and 1.5–7 mm (0.059–0.276 in) wide. The edges of the leaves are turned down or rolled under, the lower surface usually with a few soft hairs. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branches or in upper leaf axils in cylindrical to oval clusters 15–45 mm (0.59–1.77 in) long, the flowers at the base of the cluster opening first. The flowers are white to cream-coloured, the pistil 5–8.5 mm (0.20–0.33 in) long. Flowering mainly occurs from June to December and the fruit is a glabrous but sticky follicle 5.5–9 mm (0.22–0.35 in) long.[2][3]

Taxonomy edit

This species was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown who gave it the name Anadenia pulchella in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.[4][5] In 1845, Carl Meissner changed the name to Grevillea pulchella in Johann Georg Christian Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae.[6][7] The specific epithet (pulchella) means "beautiful and small".[8]

Distribution and habitat edit

Beautiful grevillea grows in variety of soils, on laterite or granite and occurs from Busselton to Manjimup and Albany, in the Stirling Range, and from the Helena River to Narrogin in the south-west of Western Australia.

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Grevillea pulchella". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Grevillea pulchella". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
  3. ^ "Grevillea pulchella". Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  4. ^ "Anadenia pulchella". APNI. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  5. ^ Brown, Robert (1810). "On the Proteaceae of Jussieu". Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 10 (1): 167. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  6. ^ "Grevillea pulchella". APNI. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  7. ^ Meissner, Carl; Lehmann, Johann G.C. (1848). Plantae Preissianae. Vol. 1. Hamburg. pp. 553–554. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  8. ^ Sharr, Francis Aubi; George, Alex (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings (3rd ed.). Kardinya, WA: Four Gables Press. p. 286. ISBN 9780958034180.