Grevillea biternata explained

Grevillea biternata is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with divided leaves with linear lobes and clusters of white flowers.

Description

Grevillea biternata is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and usually has branchlets densely covered with soft, woolly hairs. The leaves are usually divided with two to three linear lobes, the lobes long, wide and sharply pointed. The flowers are arranged in cone-shaped or cylindrical groups of eight to thirty on a rachis long, and are pale pale green in the bud stage, later white. The pistil is long. Flowering occurs from July to November and the fruit is an oblong follicle long.[1] [2]

Taxonomy

Grevillea biternata was first formally described in 1845 by Carl Meissner in Johann Georg Christian Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae from specimens collected by James Drummond in the Swan River Colony.[3] [4] The specific epithet (biternata) means "twice-ternate", referring to the three leaflets of each leaf.[5]

Distribution and habitat

This grevillea grows in heath or mallee-woodland between New Norcia, Northampton, Wubin and Wongan Hills in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Conservation status

Grevillea biternata is listed as "not threatened" by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions and as "Least Concern" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It has no major threats, either current or in the near future. Although the population is suspected to be decreasing, it is not declining significantly enough to warrant a threatened or near-threatened category.[6]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Grevillea biternata . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 20 January 2022.
  2. Web site: Grevillea biternata . State Herbarium of South Australia . 20 January 2022.
  3. Web site: Grevillea biternata. APNI. 20 January 2022.
  4. Book: Meissner . Carl . Lehmann . Johann G.C. . Plantae Preissianae . 1 . 1845 . Hamburg . 549–550 . 20 January 2022.
  5. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 147 . 3rd.
  6. Olde, P. . Keighery, G. . 2020 . Grevillea biternata . 2020 . e.T112647354A113307721 . 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-2.RLTS.T112647354A113307721.en . 21 December 2023.