''Grevillea acuaria'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Pro ...

and 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 elsew ...

to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a rounded, bushy to erect shrub with spreading linear to narrowly elliptic leaves and red flowers arranged in small clusters.

Description

''Grevillea acuaria'' is a rounded, bushy to erect shrub that typically grows to a height of . Its leaves are mostly linear to cylindrical, long and wide with the edges turned down or rolled under. The flowers are usually arranged in groups of four to six on the ends of branches or in leaf axils on a flowering stem less than long, and are scarlet to deep burgundy, the style green or red, often with a green tip. Each flower is on a

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

long, and the

pistil Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

is long. Flowering mainly occurs from May to October and the fruit is an oval follicle long.

Taxonomy

''Grevillea acuaria'' was first formally described in 1870 by George Bentham from an unpublished manuscript by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

and the description was published in '' Flora Australiensis'' from material collected by James Drummond. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''acuaria'') means "possessing needles".

Distribution and habitat

This grevillea grows in a wide variety of habitats, often in winter-wet situations and is widespread in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie,

Esperance Plains Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is a pl ...

Great Victoria Desert The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explorer Ernest Giles became the first European to cross th ...

, Mallee, Murchison, Nullarbor and Yalgoo biogeographic regions of Western Australia.

Conservation status

''Grevillea acuaria'' is listed as "Least Concern" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is a widespread, common species with a stable population and no known threats, either current or in the near future.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5607865

acuaria ''Acuaria'' is a genus of nematodes belonging to the family Acuariidae. The genus has cosmopolitan distribution In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most of the world in ...

Endemic flora of Western Australia Eudicots of Western Australia Proteales of Australia Taxa named by George Bentham Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1870