''Grevillea muricata'' 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 Kangaroo Island in South Australia. It is a low, spreading shrub with narrowly oblong to more or less linear to cylindrical leaves and small groups of bright orange-red flowers.

Description

''Grevillea muricata'' is a spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of and has woolly-hairy branchlets. The leaves are narrowly oblong to more or less linear to cylindrical, long and wide. The edges of the leaves are rolled, under enclosing most of the lower surface, and the upper surface of the leaves is covered with small sharp points. The flowers are arranged singly or in groups of up to 6 on a rachis long. The flowers are orange-red, the style with a yellowish green end, 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 November and the fruit is an elliptic to narrowly oval follicle long.

Taxonomy

''Grevillea muricata'' was first formally described in 1939 by John McConnell Black in the ''

Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia The Royal Society of South Australia (RSSA) is a learned society whose interest is in science, particularly, but not only, of South Australia. The major aim of the society is the promotion and diffusion of scientific knowledge, particularly in rel ...

'' from specimens collected between

Vivonne Bay Vivonne Bay (french: Baie Vivonne) is a bay in the Australian state of South Australia located on the south coast of Kangaroo Island about from Kingscote, the island's main town, and which was named by the members of Baudin expedition to Aust ...

and Kingscote on Kangaroo Island in 1924. 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 ...

(''muricata'') means " muricate".

Distribution and habitat

The species grows in open woodland and in dense scrub in the central-eastern part of Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from= Q15581502 muricata Proteales of Australia Endemic flora of Australia Flora of Kangaroo Island Taxa named by John McConnell Black Plants described in 1939