''Grevillea quadricauda'', commonly known as four-tailed 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 to eastern Australia. It is an erect, dense, bushy shrub with narrowly egg-shaped to elliptic leaves and small, loose clusters of green and pinkish-red flowers.

Description

''Grevillea quadricauda'' is an erect, dense, bushy shrub that typically grows high and wide and has purplish new growth. Its leaves are narrowly egg-shaped to narrowly lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base or oblong to elliptic, long and wide, the upper surface with soft, shaggy hairs and the lower surface woolly-hairy. The flowers are arranged singly or in loose clusters of up to 4 on a woolly-hairy rachis long. The flowers are pinkish-red with a green base and 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 mainly occurs from July to November and the fruit is an oval to oblong follicle long.

Taxonomy

''Grevillea quadricauda'' was first formally described in 1994 by Peter Olde and Neil Marriott in the journal '' Telopea'' from specimens collected in 1992. 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 ...

(''quadricauda'') refers to four tail-like appendages on the flowers.

Distribution and habitat

Four-tailed grevillea grows in woodland and forest, usually along creeks and watercourses and is found in a few locations near Helidon in south-east Queensland and a few locations near Whiporie and

Grafton Grafton may refer to: Places Australia * Grafton, New South Wales Canada * Grafton, New Brunswick * Grafton, Nova Scotia * Grafton, Ontario England * Grafton, Cheshire * Grafton, Herefordshire *Grafton, North Yorkshire * Grafton, Oxfordshi ...

in north-eastern New South Wales.

Conservation status

''Grevillea quadricauda'' is listed as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government '' Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' and the New South Wales Government '' Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016''. It was one of eleven species selected for the Save a Species Walk campaign in April 2016; scientists walked 300 km to raise money for collection of seeds to be prepared and stored at the Australian Plant Bank at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15581817 quadricauda Proteales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland Plants described in 1994