Grevillea erinacea is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a spreading shrub with deeply-divided leaves with three to five linear lobes, rotated through 90°, and cream-coloured flowers with a white style.

Grevillea erinacea
Near Eneabba
Conservation status
Priority Three — Poorly Known Taxa (DEC)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Proteales
Family:	Proteaceae
Genus:	Grevillea
Species:	G. erinacea
Binomial name
Grevillea erinacea Meisn.[1]

Description

Grevillea erinacea is a spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.3–1.8 m (1 ft 0 in – 5 ft 11 in), its branchlets covered with woolly to more or less silky hairs. Its leaves are rotated through 90°, 10–35 mm (0.39–1.38 in) long and deeply divided with three to five sharply pointed lobes 5–20 mm (0.20–0.79 in) long and 0.6–1 mm (0.024–0.039 in) wide. The flowers are arranged in more or less spherical to dome-shaped groups along a woolly-hairy rachis. The flowers are greenish in bud, later cream-coloured and silky hairy, the pistil 2.5–4.5 mm (0.098–0.177 in) long with a white style. Flowering occurs from July to December, but mainly from July to October and the fruit is a mostly smooth, oblong to oval follicle 7.5–10 mm (0.30–0.39 in) long.[2][3]

Taxonomy

Grevillea erinacea was first formally described in 1855 by Carl Meissner in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany based on material collected by James Drummond.[4][5] The specific epithet (erinacea) means "hedgehog", referring to the prickly leaves.[6]

Distribution and habitat

This grevillea grows in heath and shrubland in the area between Ellendale, Three Springs and Arrowsmith in the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia.[2][3]

Conservation status

Grevillea erinacea is listed as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions,[3] meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.[7]

See also

• List of Grevillea species

References