Grevillea scapigera, commonly known as Corrigin grevillea,[2] is a small shrub which is endemic to a small area of the Wheatbelt region in Western Australia. In 1987 it was listed as was declared as Rare Flora under the Western Australian Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 then listed as Critically endangered in 1995. According to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 it is listed as endangered as a result of its lack of critical habitat, habitat fragmentation, seed predation, weeds, rabbits and salinity.[3]

Grevillea scapigera
Conservation status
Endangered  (EPBC Act)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Proteales
Family:	Proteaceae
Genus:	Grevillea
Species:	G. scapigera
Binomial name
Grevillea scapigera A.S.George

Description

The small suckering shrub has a spreading to weakly ascending to prostrate habit and typically reaches a height of 0.15 to 0.4 m (5.9 in to 1 ft 3.7 in) with a width up to around 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in). It blooms between February and November and produces greeny-yellow to white coloured flowers.[4] It has erect green leaves that are found on long slender stalks. The leaves 3 to 9 cm (1.2 to 3.5 in) in length and tend to be hairy when young but become glabrous as they age. Each leaf has sharply pointed, flattened and deeply cut lobes. The leaves have a slightly leathery texture and can feel slightly slightly prickly to touch. The flowers have a very sweet scent and have spherical flower-heads that can have a diamter of around 4 cm (1.6 in). The sticky fruits that follow are slightly oblique and compressed with a length of 1 to 1.5 cm (0.39 to 0.59 in) and contain mottled grey to light brown coloured seeds.[3]

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist Alexander Segger George in 1974 as a part of the work Seven new species of Grevillea (Proteaceae) from Western Australia as published in the journal Nuytsia.[5]

Distribution

It is found in a small area centred around the town of Corrigin from south of Quairading in the west to about halfway between Corrigin and Kwolyin in the north out as far as Hyden in the east and about halfway between Corrigin and Yealering in the south.[4] All the known populations have a total range of approximately 40 km (25 mi) and are often found along degraded road verges on flat country as a part of tall shrubland or low heathland communities.[3] It is mostly found growing in gravelly to sandy lateritic soils.[4]

See also

• List of Grevillea species

References