''Grevillea evansiana'', commonly known as Evans 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 area of New South Wales. It is a low, dense, spreading shrub with elliptic leaves and usually blackish-red flowers with a

burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

-coloured style.

Description

''Grevillea evansiana'' is a low, dense, spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of up to , rarely to and has branchlets covered with white, woolly hairs. Its leaves are usually elliptic, long and wide, the lower surface sillky-hairy. The flowers are arranged in more or less spherical clusters, usually on a peduncle long, on the ends of branchlets. The flowers are usually blackish-red with a burgundy style, rarely white with a greenish-cream 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'' ...

long and the style strongly curved. Flowering occurs from August to December and the fruit is a glabrous, oblong follicle long.

Taxonomy

''Grevillea evansiana'' was first formally described in 1953 by Hugh Shaw MacKee in ''

Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales The Linnean Society of New South Wales promotes ''the Cultivation and Study of the Science of Natural History in all its Branches'' and was founded in Sydney, New South Wales ( Australia) in 1874 and incorporated in 1884. History The Society suc ...

'' from specimens he collected near the

Cudgegong River Cudgegong River, a perennial stream that is part of the Macquarie catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the central western and Orana districts of New South Wales, Australia. The river rises of the western slopes of the ...

in the

Rylstone Rylstone is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated very near to Cracoe and about 6 miles south west of Grassington. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 160. Ryls ...

area in 1951. 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 ...

(''evansiana'') honour
Obed David Evans

Distribution and habitat

Evans grevillea usually grows in forest or woodland, sometimes in swampy heath and is only known from east of Rylstone in New South Wales.

Conservation status

''Grevillea evansiana'' has two vastly different conservation statuses. It is listed as Vulnerable under the Australian Government '' Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' and the New South Wales '' Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016''. However, under an assessment published in 2020 by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

, it has been 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 ...

. Although it has a limited range, its population is assumed stable and its threats are not major enough to warrant a threatened or near-threatened category. Altered fire regimes causing too frequent wildfires could pose a threat to some of the species' populations. Both the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

and the '' EPBC Act'' have identified habitat disturbance and trampling from recreational activities as a threat to the species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q13550416 evansiana Flora of New South Wales Proteales of Australia Endemic flora of Australia Taxa named by Hugh Shaw MacKee Plants described in 1953