''Grevillea humilis'' 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 to eastern New South Wales. It is an erect to spreading shrub with narrowly elliptic to more or less linear leaves, and pink or white flowers.

Description

''Grevillea humilis'' is an erect to spreading shrub, that typically grows to a height of and forms a

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

. Its leaves are narrowly elliptic to more or less linear or lance-shaped to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide, sometimes arranged in clusters of three. The flowers are arranged in loose clusters of 10 to 24 and are pink or white, 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'' ...

usually long. Flowering time varies with subspecies and the fruit is a follicle long.

Taxonomy

''Grevillea humilis'' was first formally described in 2000 by

Robert Owen Makinson Robert Owen Makinson (born 1956) is an Australian botanist. He has published some 65 botanical names. See also Taxa named by Robert Owen Makinson. He studied at Macquarie University, was ABLO at Kew in 1995–1996 (replacing Barry Conn Bar ...

in the '' Flora of Australia'' from specimens collected near the Bucketts Way in 1985. 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 ...

(''humilis'') means "low or small". In the same publication, Makinson described three subspecies of ''G. humilis'' and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: * ''Grevillea humilis'' Makinson subsp. ''humilis'' has narrowly oblong leaves wide, the upper surface glabrous, each flower on a pedicel long, the flowers usually pink, sometimes white, flowering from August to November; * ''Grevillea humilis'' subsp. ''lucens'' Makinson has narrowly oblong to almost linear leaves wide, the upper surface glabrous or silky-hairy, each flower on a pedicel long, the flowers pink, flowering from June to August; * ''Grevillea humilis'' subsp. ''maritima'' Makinson has narrowly oblong to narrowly egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, wide, the upper surface silky-hairy, each flower on a pedicel long, the flowers usually white, flowering from March to September.

Distribution and habitat

''Grevillea humilis'' occurs in the Glass House Mountains of

South Eastern Queensland South Eastern Queensland is an interim Australian bioregion located in south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales. It has an area of . It is one of the most biodiverse bioregions in Australia. The bioregion is home to eucalypt ...

and south through the coast and nearby ranges of eastern New South Wales. Subspecies ''humilis'' grows in woodland in the

Hunter region The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...

of New South Wales, inland as far as Scone. Subspecies ''lucens'' grows in open forest or woodland in the Glass House Mountains in Queensland and on the far New South Wales North Coast. Subspecies ''maritima'' grows in heath in rocky places in heath on the North Coast of New South Wales as far north as Bundjalung National Park.

Conservation status

''Grevillea humilis'' is listed as Least Concern on the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

. It is widely distributed and faces no major current threats overall, although it is believed to be in minor decline. Subspecies ''humilis'' is threatened by suburban expansion within parts of its range, though this does not affect the species as a whole to a degree that would warrant it a threatened or near-threatened category.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15580201, from2=Q100453163, from3=Q66104367, from4=Q66104368 humilis Proteales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Taxa named by Robert Owen Makinson Plants described in 2000