''Grevillea pauciflora'', commonly known as the few-flowered grevillea, or as Port Lincoln grevillea in South Australia, 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 of continental Australia. It is an erect to straggly or spreading shrub with linear to narrowly wedge-shaped leaves and red or orange flowers with a red or orange style.

Description

''Grevillea pauciflora'' is an erect to straggly or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of . Its leaves are linear or narrowly wedge-shaped to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, mostly long and wide with the edges turned down or rolled, the lower surface sometimes silky hairy. The flowers are arranged singly or in groups of up to four, sometimes to ten, on the ends of branches or in leaf axils on a rachis long. The flowers are red or orange with a red or orange style, 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 varies with subspecies and the fruit is a glabrous, elliptic follicle long.

Taxonomy

''Grevillea pauciflora'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in '' Transactions of the Linnean Society of London''. 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 ...

(''pauciflora'') means "few-flowered". The

''pauciflora'', referring the Latin term for 'few flowered'.D. Gledhill In 1986, Donald McGillivray described two subspecies in ''New Names in Grevillea (Proteaceae)'' and in 1996

William Robert Barker William (Bill) Robert Barker is an Honorary Research Associate of the State Herbarium of South Australia. He is a former Chief Botanist of the State Herbarium. With Robyn Mary Barker and Laurence Haegi he had a particular interest in ''Hakea'' in ...

described a third subspecies in the ''

Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens The Adelaide Botanic Garden is a public garden at the north-east corner of the Adelaide city centre, in the Adelaide Park Lands. It encompasses a fenced garden on North Terrace, Adelaide, North Terrace (between Lot Fourteen, the site of the old ...

'', 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 pauciflora'' subsp. ''leptophylla'' W.R.Barker is a shrub up to high with silky-hairy branchlets, thread-like leaves long, the edges rolled under and enclosing the lower surface, and red flowers with a yellow-tipped style from August to October. * ''Grevillea pauciflora'' R.Br. subsp. ''pauciflora'' is a shrub up to high with silky-hairy branchlets, egg-shaped to linear leaves long, the lower surface sometimes silky-hairy, and orange to bright red flowers with a red, yellow-tipped style, mainly from June to October. * ''Grevillea pauciflora'' subsp. ''psilophylla'' McGill. is a shrub high with silky-hairy, ridged branchlets, narrowly wedge-shaped to narrowly egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, long, the lower surface glabrous, and red flowers with a red, yellow-tipped style, from May to June or from September to December. * ''Grevillea pauciflora'' subsp. ''saxatilis'' McGill. is a spindly shrub up to high with silky- to woolly-hairy, ridged branchlets, narrowly egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, mostly long, the edges rolled under, enclosing the lower surface, and red flowers with an orange-tipped style, mainly in July and August.

Distribution and habitat

''Grevillea pauciflora'' grows in sandy soil. Subspecies ''leptophylla'' is only known on the

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named aft ...

in South Australia, where it is found north and north-west of

Cummins Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, filtration, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipment, including fuel systems, controls, air ...

, but subsp. ''pauciflora'' is widespread on the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas and on Kangaroo Island. Subspecies ''psilophylla'' is found in near-coastal areas of Western Australia from east of Esperance to Point Malcolm near

Israelite Bay Israelite Bay is a bay and locality on the south coast of Western Australia. Situated in the Shire of Esperance local government area, it lies east of Esperance and the Cape Arid National Park, within the Nuytsland Nature Reserve and the Grea ...

and subspecies ''saxatilis'' only grows in

Cape Arid National Park Cape Arid National Park is a List of national parks of Australia, national park located in Western Australia, southeast of Perth. The park is situated east of Esperance, Western Australia, Esperance and lies on the shore of the South coast of W ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15582097, from2=Q66104408, from3=Q100453223, from4=Q51054170, from5=Q51054179 pauciflora Endemic flora of Western Australia Eudicots of Western Australia Proteales of Australia Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)

Description

Taxonomy

Distribution and habitat

See also

References