''Grevillea celata'', commonly known as Nowa Nowa grevillea or Colquhoun 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 a restricted part of Victoria in Australia. It is an erect and open to low, dense shrub with oblong, broadly elliptic or linear leaves, and red and yellow, or red, white and apricot-coloured, sometimes all yellow flowers.

Description

''Grevillea celata'' is an erect, open or low, dense shrub that typically grows to a height of and forms suckers. Its leaves are oblong, broadly elliptic or linear, mostly long and wide with the edges turned down or rolled under. The lower surface of the leaves is woolly-hairy. The flowers are usually arranged in groups of two to eight on the ends of branchlets or short side shoots on a rachis long, and are red and yellow, or red, white and apricot-coloured, sometimes all yellow, 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'' ...

long, the style red with a green base and tip. Flowering occurs from July to February, and the fruit is a woolly-hairy follicle long. ''

Grevillea alpina The Australian flowering shrub ''Grevillea alpina'' has several common names, including mountain grevillea, alpine grevillea, and cat's claws. It is not limited to alpine environments, and in fact is less common at high elevation than low. The s ...

'' and '' G. chrysophaea'' are similar species, but neither forms suckers.

Taxonomy

''Grevillea celata'' was first formally described in 1995 by

Bill Molyneux William Mitchell Molyneux (born 1935) is an Australian horticulturist and author who has researched and developed many popular cultivars of Australian plants, including Banksia 'Birthday Candles', and Isopogon 'Woorikee 2000'. '' Grevillea mo ...

in the journal '' Muelleria'' from specimens he collected from Colquhoun State Forest in south-eastern Victoria in 1993. 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 ...

(''celata'') means "hidden" or "concealed within", referring to the earlier confusion with ''G. alpina'' and ''G. chrysophaea''.

Distribution and habitat

Nowa Nowa grevillea grows in dry sclerophyll woodland in Colquhoun State Forest near

Bruthen Bruthen is a small town located alongside the Tambo River between Bairnsdale and Ensay on the Great Alpine Road in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census, Bruthen had a population of 814. Bruthen is east of Bairnsdale and eas ...

in south-eastern Victoria.

Conservation status

The species is listed as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government ''

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cultu ...

'', as "critically endangered" in Victoria under the ''

Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 The ''Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988'', also known as the ''FFG Act'', is an act of the Victorian Government designed to protect species, genetic material and habitats, to prevent extinction and allow maximum genetic diversity within the Au ...

'' and as "vulnerable in Victoria" on the

Department of Sustainability and Environment The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) was a state government department that managed water resources, climate change, bushfires, public land, forests and eco systems in the state of Victoria, Australia. It was created in 2002 whe ...

's ''Advisory List of Rare Or Threatened Plants In Victoria'', and a National Recovery Plan has been prepared. The main threats to the species include inapprpriate fire regimes, road works, and browsing by kangaroos.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5607899 celata Flora of Victoria (state) Proteales of Australia Plants described in 1995