''Grevillea aurea'', commonly known as golden grevillea or Death Adder Gorge grevillea, 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

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

in Australia. It is a tall, open shrub leaves that have nine to twenty-seven lobes or teeth, and flowers that are red at first, becoming orange-red to yellow as they age.

Description

''Grevillea aurea'' is a tall, open shrub that typically grows to a height of . Its leaves are oblong in outline, long and wide with nine to twenty-seven lobes or teeth on the edges. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branches on a rachis long and are brick red when they first open, later orange-red to yellow, with an orange to yellow style. 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 and the

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

is glabrous. Flowering occurs from April to August and the fruit is an elliptic follicle long.

Taxonomy

''Grevillea aurea'' was formally described in 1993 by

Peter M. Olde Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

and

Neil R. Marriott Neil is a masculine name of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish ''Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. A ...

in the journal '' Telopea'' from specimens collected in Death Adder Gorge by Donald McGillivray an
Clyde Robert Dunlop
in 1978. 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 ...

(''aurea'') means "golden".

Distribution and habitat

Golden grevillea grows in heath, scrub and forest understorey on sandstone escarpments and ridges in three separate parts of Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory.

Conservation status

''Grevillea aurea'' is listed as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Although it has a restricted distribution, it is presumed to currently have a stable population. There are no known major threats to the population, either currently or in the near future.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5607876

aurea Aurea, golden in Latin, may refer to: * Aurea (car), a former Italian automobile manufactured in Turin from 1921 to 1930 * Aurea (singer) (born 1987), Portuguese singer * Aurea Alexandrina, a kind of opiate or antidote * Áurea, a municipality in ...

Proteales of Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Plants described in 1993