''Grevillea nana'', commonly known as dwarf 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 the south-west of Western Australia. It is a prostrate to low, mounded, dense shrub with divided leaves with sharply-pointed, linear lobes, and clusters of pink, orange, yellow or red flowers.

Description

''Grevillea nana'' is a prostrate to dense, mounded shrub that typically grows to high and wide. Its leaves are long and divided with 5 to 19 lobes, their size varying with subspecies. The flowers are arranged near the ground and at the base of the foliage on a rachis long, and are silky- to woolly-hairy on the outside, the colour varying with subspecies, 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 time also varies with subspecies, and the fruit is a hairy follicle long.

Taxonomy

''Grevillea nana'' was first formally described in 1943 by Charles Gardner in the ''

Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia The Royal Society of Western Australia (RSWA) promotes science in Western Australia. The RSWA was founded in 1914. It publishes the ''Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia'', and has awarded the Medal of the Royal Society of Western ...

'' from specimens collected by William Blackall between Koorda and Bencubbin. 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 ...

(''nana'') means "dwarf". In 1986, Donald McGillivray described two subspecies of ''G. nana'' in his book, ''New Names in Grevillea (Proteaceae)'', and the names are accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

: * ''Grevillea nana'' subsp. ''abbreviata'' McGill. has leaves with 7 to 19 lobes that are usually long and wide, and green or greenish-fawn flowers with a pink to purplish style from August to October. * ''Grevillea nana'' C.A.Gardner subsp. ''nana'' has leaves with 5 to 13 lobes that are long and wide, and creamy-green or greenish-pink to scarlet flowers with a purplish, red or pale orange style from June to October.

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies ''abbreviata'' grows on shallow soil around granite outcrops in shrubland in the area around Wubin and about to the east, in the Avon Wheatbelt bioregion. Subspecies ''nana'' grows in open heath and shrubland from near

Bullfinch Bullfinch is a name given to two groups of passerine birds. True bullfinches The true bullfinches are thick-billed finches in the passerine family Fringillidae. They comprise the genus ''Pyrrhula''. These birds are restricted to the Old World, an ...

to Mount Gibson and

Manmanning Manmanning is a small Wheatbelt town in Western Australia. The name of the town first appeared on charts drawn in 1907, and was the Indigenous Australian name of a soak located close to the townsite. The townsite was originally a railway sidi ...

in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Murchison and Yalgoo bioregions of south-western Western Australia..

Conservation status

Subspecies ''nana'' is listed as "not threatened" but subspecies ''abbreviata'' is listed as " Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is the Western Australian government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state de ...

, meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q5607976, from2=Q51054083, from3=Q51054100

nana Nana, Nanna, Na Na or NANA may refer to: People and fictional characters * Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname * Nana (c ...

Proteales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Charles Gardner Plants described in 1943