''Grevillea irrasa'' 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 south-eastern New South Wales. It is an erect, spreading shrub with oblong to egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and clusters of red to

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...

-coloured flowers.

Description

''Grevillea irrasa'' is an erect, spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of and has hairy branchlets. Its leaves are oblong to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide, the edges rolled under and the lower surface with felty or shaggy hairs. The flowers are usually arranged on the ends of branches in clusters of six to sixteen on a rachis long and are red to apricot-coloured, 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. Flowering occurs from August to January and the fruit is a glabrous oval to elliptic follicle long.

Taxonomy

''Grevillea irrasa'' was first formally described in 2000 by Australian botanist

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 in the Nullica State Forest in 1997. 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 ...

(''irrasa'') means "unpolished" or "unshaven" and refers to the surface of the leaves, branchlets and flowers. In the same publication, Makinson described two subspecies of ''G. irrasa'' and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: *''Grevillea irrasa'' subsp. ''didymochiton'' Makinson has leaves that are egg-shaped or lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, or elliptic or oblong, and five to seven times as long as broad; *''Grevillea irrasa'' subsp. ''irrasa'' Makinson has leaves that are narrowly oblong to lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, and five to ten times as long as broad.

Distribution and habitat

''Grevillea irrasa'' occurs in dry sclerophyll forest inland from

Pambula Pambula is a town in Bega Valley Shire on the far south coast of New South Wales, Australia south of Sydney via the Princes Highway. At the , Pambula had a population of 970 people. History The area was populated by the Thaua Aboriginal peo ...

and

Moruya Moruya is a town located on the far south coast of New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Moruya River. The Princes Highway runs through the town that is about south of Sydney and from Canberra. At the , Moruya had a population of 4,295 ...

in the south-east of New South Wales. Subspecies is found inland from Moruya in the catchment of the Tuross River and subsp. ''irrasa'' inland from Pambula in the catchments of the Yowaka and

Nullica River The Nullica River is an intermittently closed semi-mature saline coastal lagoon or perennial river, located in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features The Nullica River rises below Nullica Hill within Nullic ...

s, the distributions of the two subspecies separated by about .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5607952 irrasa Flora of New South Wales Proteales of Australia Taxa named by Robert Owen Makinson