Grevillea arenaria (Grevillea arenaria)
Description
Grevillea is a diverse genus of about 360 species of evergreen flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, native to rainforest and more open habitats in Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Sulawesi and other Indonesian islands east of the Wallace Line. It was named in honour of Charles Francis Greville. The species range from prostrate shrubs less than 50 cm (20 in) tall to trees 35 m (115 ft) tall. Common names include grevillea, spider flower, silky oak and toothbrush plant. Closely related to the genus Hakea, the genus gives its name to the subfamily Grevilleoideae. The brightly coloured, petal-less flowers consist of a calyx tube that splits into 4 lobes with long styles. They are good bird-attracting plants, honeyeaters in particular are common visitors. They are also used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the dryandra moth and the Pieris rapae (small white). Grevillea arenaria is a shrub which is endemic to the east of New South Wales in Australia. It has an erect to spreading habit and grows to between 1 and 3 metres in height. Its leaves are 1.5 to 7 cm long and 3 to 15 mm in width. The flowers, which occur in groups of 2 to 10, are pink, red or orange, with green or yellow at the base and green styles. These occur year-round, with a major flourish in spring. The species was first formally described by botanist Robert Brown in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London in 1810. It occurs on sandy soils in open forests in the Great Dividing Range, its southernmost extent in line with Narooma and its northernmost extent in line with Sydney.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Proteales
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Family: Proteaceae
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Genus: Grevillea
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