Grevillea hookeriana, commonly known as red toothbrushes or Hooker's grevillea,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a spreading to erect shrub, usually with linear leaves or deeply divided leaves with linear lobes, and toothbrush-shaped groups of red, black or yellowish green flowers, the style maroon to black.
Grevillea hookeriana is a spreading to erect shrub that typically grows to high and up to wide. Its leaves are long, sometimes linear and wide, or deeply divided with up to nine linear lobes wide. The linear leaves or lobes are sharply-pointed, the edges rolled under obscuring most of the lower surface. The flowers are arranged in toothbrush-shaped groups on a rachis long, and are silky- to shaggy-hairy, red, black or yellowish-green the pistil long. The fruit is a hairy follicle long.
Grevillea hookeriana was first formally described in 1845 by Carl Meissner in Johann Georg Christian Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae from specimens collected by James Drummond near the Swan River.[2] [3] The specific epithet (hookeriana) honours William Jackson Hooker, and probably also his son Joseph Dalton Hooker.[4] In 2000, Robert Owen Makinson described three subspecies of G. hookeriana in the Flora of Australia and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
Subspecies hookeriana is variable, and four forms can be distinguished, with frequent intermediates.
Hooker's grevillea is widespread in the south-west of Western Australia, where it grows in heath or shrubland, mainly between Three Springs, Mount Churchman (near Karroun Hill Nature Reserve), Coolgardie and Katanning. Subspecies apiciloba is mostly found in the centre of the species' range, subsp. digitata in the north-west of the species' range and subsp. hookeriana in the area between Coorow, Katanning, Newdegate and Merredin.
Grevillea hookeriana is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. All three subspecies are listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
This species has a widespread distribution where it is locally common, and the species' population as a whole is generally stable. Although land clearing for agriculture has reduced much of its distribution, it occurs within multiple protected areas and large areas of its range remain unaffected by land clearing.[11]
A cultivar known as G.'Red Hooks' (often erroneously referred to as G. hookeriana or G. hookerana) has been in cultivation for many years. It is a hybrid of G. hookeriana and G. tetragonoloba. G. hookeriana is comparatively rare in cultivation, and less vigorous than the cultivar. It is best suited to a climate where the summers are dry.It requires good drainage and prefers a sunny or partially shaded position and has moderate frost resistance.[12] Propagation is from semi-mature cuttings or seed.[12]