''Grevillea muelleri'' 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 a relatively small area of south-western Western Australia. It is a shrub with linear to narrowly oblong, or divided leaves with linear or narrowly egg-shaped lobes, more or less spherical clusters of white to cream-coloured flowers.
Description
''Grevillea muelleri'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and has silky-hairy branchlets. Its adult leaves are long, linear to narrowly oblong or narrowly lance-shaped, sometimes with a few irregular teeth and wide, sometimes divided and wide. Leaves on flowering stems are usually narrower and shorter with fewer lobes. The flowers are white to cream-coloured, usually near the ends of branches, sometimes branched, in more or less spherical clusters long on a
rachis , 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 June to September and the fruit is an egg-shaped to elliptic
follicle long.
Taxonomy
''Grevillea muelleri'' was first formally described in 1870 by
George Bentham in ''
Flora Australiensis'' from specimens collected by
Ferdinand von Mueller
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...
at the summit of the
Stirling Range
The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, south-east of Perth. It is over wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranb ...
.
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 ...
(''muelleri'') honours the collector of the
type
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type, collection of values used for computations.
* File type
* TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file.
* Ty ...
specimens.
Distribution and habitat
This grevillea grows in forest and tall shrubland and is mainly restricted to the
Stirling Range National Park in the
Esperance Plains
Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is a pl ...
,
Jarrah Forest
Jarrah forest is tall open forest in which the dominant overstory tree is ''Eucalyptus marginata'' (jarrah). The ecosystem occurs only in the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia. It is most common in the biogeographic region named in ...
and
Mallee bioregions of south-western Western Australia.
See also
*
List of Grevillea species
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15581115
muelleri
Endemic flora of Western Australia
Eudicots of Western Australia
Proteales of Australia
Taxa named by George Bentham
Plants described in 1870