''Grevillea virgata'', commonly known as Nerong 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 ...

. It is an upright shrub with white flowers 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 Central Coast of New South Wales.

Description

''Grevillea virgata'' is an upright, open shrub that grows to a height of , with reddish branches when young and sometimes forms a

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

. The leaves are narrowly elliptic, more or less spreading, usually separated in clusters of three, long, wide, upper surface sometimes marked with dots, prominent veins, smooth or with small, round protuberances. The lower surface is visible and loosely to occasional with almost silky flattened hairs . The white flowers are borne at the end of branches, upright or curved downward, broadly on one side in groups of 10-24. The

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

is white with occasional silky flattened hairs, densely on limbs, inside occasionally bearded. The

gynoecium 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, style white, turning pink after the perianth drops, mostly smooth, hooked at the end . Flowering occurs mostly from May to October and the fruit is a narrow ovoid shape long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Grevillea virgata'' was first formally described in 2000 by

Robert Owen Makinson Robert Owen Makinson (born 1956) is an Australian botanist. He has published some 65 botanical names. See also Taxa named by Robert Owen Makinson. He studied at Macquarie University, was ABLO at Kew in 1995–1996 (replacing Barry Conn Bar ...

, and the description was published in '' Flora of Australia''. 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 ...

(''virgata'') means "long and slender".

Distribution and habitat

Nerong grevillea grows in forest and on the edges of swamps near the lower

Myall River Myall River, an open semi-mature brackish freshwater barrier estuary of the Mid-Coast Council system, is located in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Myall River rises out of the southern slopes ...

, and occurs between

Bulahdelah Bulahdelah is a town and locality in the Hunter/Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia in the Mid-Coast Council local government area. At the 2016 census, the locality had a population of 1,424. The main population centre, where ...

and Nerong in New South Wales.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15581720 virgata Proteales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Taxa named by Robert Owen Makinson