Grevillea candicans explained

Grevillea candicans is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a bushy shrub with pinnately-divided leaves with sharply-pointed linear lobes, and cream-coloured flowers.

Description

Grevillea candicans is a bushy shrub that typically grows to a height of . Its leaves are pinnately divided, long, with two to seven erect, sharply pointed, linear lobes long and wide with the edges turned under. The lower surface of the leaves has two hairy grooves. The flowers are arranged in leaf axils and on the ends of branchlets in cylindrical groups long, and are cream-coloured, the pistil long and glabrous. Flowering mostly occurs from August to November and the fruit is a glabrous follicle long.[1]

Taxonomy

Grevillea candicans was first formally described in 1942 by Charles Gardner in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia from specimens collected by William Blackall.[2] [3] The specific epithet (candicans) means "becoming white or whitish".[4]

Distribution and habitat

This grevillea grows in sandy soil in open shrubland or woodland from near Geraldton to the Murchison River with an isolated population east of Dalwallinu, in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains and Yalgoo biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia.

Conservation status

Grevillea candicans has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as it has an estimated extent of occurrence (EOO) of less than 12,000kmĀ², a severely fragmented range and a population decline of greater than 30% within the past three generations (75 years) due to habitat clearing for roads and agriculture. Current major threats to this species include the clearance of road verges where the species is found and weed invasion.[5]

It is also listed as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.[6]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Grevillea candicans . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 15 February 2022.
  2. Web site: Grevillea candicans. APNI. 15 February 2022.
  3. Gardner . Charles A. . Contributiones Florae Australiae Occidentalis, XI . Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia . 1943 . 27 . 170 . 14 February 2022.
  4. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 157 . 3rd.
  5. Monks, L. . Keighery, G. . 2020 . Grevillea candicans . 2020 . e.T112648845A113307776 . 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-2.RLTS.T112648845A113307776.en . 22 December 2023.
  6. Web site: Conservation codes for Western Australian Flora and Fauna. Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife. 15 February 2022.