Grevillea variifolia explained

Grevillea variifolia, commonly known as the Cape Range grevillea, is species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the far west of Western Australia. It is a spreading to sprawling, irregularly-branched shrub, with broadly egg-shaped to trowel-shaped leaves usually with 3 to 7 teeth or lobes, and down-turned clusters of red flowers with a yellow-tipped style.

Description

Grevillea variifolia is a spreading to sprawling, irregularly-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of and has somewhat silky-hairy branchlets. Its leaves are egg-shaped to trowel-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide on a short petiole, with 3 to 7 sharply-pointed lobes. The flowers are arranged in down-turned clusters, more or less on one side of a rachis long, the flowers nearer the base of the rachis flowering first, each flower on a pedicel long. The flowers are red with a yellow-tipped style, the pistil long. Flowering mainly occurs from June to October, and the fruit is a glabrous, ridged, oval follicle long.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Taxonomy

Grevillea variifolia was first formally described in 1963 by Charles Austin Gardner and Alex George in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia from specimens collected by George in the Cape Range in 1961.^[4] The specific epithet (variifolia) means "varying-leaved".^[5]

In 1998, Greg Keighery described two subspecies of G. variifolia in the journal Nuytsia, and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

• Grevillea variifolia subsp. bundera Keighery^[6] has mature leaves with a petiole about long, the leaves usually triangular long and up to wide with up to 5 sharply-pointed lobes.^{[7] [8]}
• Grevillea variifolia C.A.Gardner & A.S.George subsp. varifolia^[9] has mature leaves with a petiole long, the leaves usually lance-shaped to wedge-shaped, long and wide with up to 3 to 7 lobes that are rarely sharply pointed.^[10]

Distribution and habitat

Cape Range grevillea grows in open shrubland, subsp. bundera between Cape Cuvier and the Rough Range (inland from Ningaloo), and subsp. variifolia in the northern part of North West Cape.

Conservation status

Grevillea variifolia is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.

See also

• List of Grevillea species

Notes and References

1. Web site: Grevillea variifolia . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 8 April 2023.
2. Book: Wrigley . John W. . Fagg . Murray A. . Banksias, waratahs & grevilleas : and all other plants in the Australian Proteaceae family . 1991 . Angus & Robertson . North Ryde, NSW, Australia . 0207172773 . 345.
3. Gardner . Charles A. . George . Alex S. . Eight new plants from Western Australia. . Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia . 1963 . 46 . 129 . 8 April 2023.
4. Web site: Grevillea variifolia. APNI. 8 April 2023.
5. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 333 . 3rd.
6. Web site: Grevillea variifolia subsp. bundera . Australian Plant Census . 8 April 2023.
7. Keighery . Gregory J. . A new subspecies of Grevillea variifolia (Proteaceae). . Nuytsia . 1998 . 12 . 2 . 293–295 . 8 April 2023.
8. Web site: Grevillea variifolia subsp. bundera . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 8 April 2023.
9. Web site: Grevillea variifolia subsp. varifolia . Australian Plant Census . 8 April 2023.
10. Web site: Grevillea variifolia . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 8 April 2023.