Grevillea Tripartita

''Grevillea tripartita '' is species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, prickly shrub with divided leaves with 3 lobes, and clusters of red and cream-coloured or reddish-orange and yellow flowers.

Description

''Grevillea tripartita'' is usually an erect shrub, rarely low-lying, that typically grows to a height of . Its leaves are long and up to wide, usually deeply divided with 3 triangular to more or less linear lobes long and wide. Sometimes the leaves are elliptic or narrowly elliptic with 3 lobes long and wide on the end. The edges of the leaves are turned down to rolled under without concealing the silky- to shaggy-hairy lower surface. The flowers are arranged in loose clusters of 2 to 6 on the ends of branches or in upper leaf axils on a rachis long, the flowers nearer the end of the rachis flowering first. The flowers are red and cream-coloured or reddish-orange and yellow, depending on subspecies, and the pistil is long. Flowering time varies with subspecies, and the fruit is a follicle long with a conspicuous ridge.

Taxonomy

''Grevillea tripartita'' was first formally described in 1856 by Carl Meissner in de Candolle's ''Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis'' from specimens collected by James Drummond in the Swan River Colony.

The specific epithet (''tripartita'') means "divided into three parts", referring to the leaves.

In 2000, Robert Makinson described two subspecies of ''G. tripartita'' in '' Flora of Australia'', and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
*''Grevillea tripartita'' subsp. ''macrostylis'' (F.Muell.) Makinson, (previously known as ''Grevillea macrostylis'') is a spreading shrub with triangular teeth or lobes, the flowers reddish to orange and yellow to cream-coloured flowers mainly from August to December.
*''Grevillea tripartita'' Meisn. subsp. ''tripartita'' is a more or less erect shrub with deeply divided, spreading, linear lobes, the flowers orange-red and yellow flowers in most months, with a peak from August to November.

Distribution

Subspecies ''macrostylis'' grows in mallee heath and coastal heath and is common on the south coast of Western Australia between East Mount Barren and Point Culver in the Esperance Plains bioregion. Subspecies ''tripartita'' grows in mallee scrub or shrubland and is widespread on the south coast from near the Stirling Range to East Mount Barren and Jerramungup in the Esperance Plains and Mallee bioregions.

Conservation status

Both subspecies of ''G. tripartita'' are listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.

See also

* List of Grevillea species

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q5608031, from2=Q51054393, from3=Q100453360

tripartita
Endemic flora of Western Australia
Eudicots of Western Australia
Proteales of Australia
Taxa named by Carl Meissner
Plants described in 1856