Grevillea aspleniifolia

Description

Grevillea aspleniifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to eastern New South Wales. It is a spreading shrub with linear to narrowly egg-shaped leaves and purplish flowers. Grevillea aspleniifolia is a spreading shrub that typically grows to 1–5 m (3 ft 3 in – 16 ft 5 in) high and up to 5 m (16 ft) wide. The leaves are linear to narrowly egg-shaped, 150–250 mm (5.9–9.8 in) long and 3–15 mm (0.12–0.59 in) wide with irregular serrations and a woolly-hairy lower surface, the edges turned down or rolled under. The flowers are arranged in toothbrush-like racemes along a rachis usually 30–50 mm (1.2–2.0 in) long, and are purplish with grey or white hairs. The pistil is mostly 15–25 mm (0.59–0.98 in) long and the style has a green tip. Flowering mainly occurs from July to November and the fruits is a hairy follicle 11–12 mm (0.43–0.47 in) long. Grevillea aspleniifolia was first formally described in 1809 by Joseph Knight in On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natural order of Proteeae.The specific epithet (aspleniifolia) means ''Asplenium-leaved". This grevillea grows in woodland on sandstone or shale in the catchments of the Warragamba Dam and Woronora River, and near Bungonia Caves, in eastern New South Wales. Grevillea aspleniifolia is reported to be a hardy, fast-growing plant that tolerates heavy soil as long as the soil is well-drained. A sunny position is preferred. Plants in the genus Grevillea are shrubs, rarely small trees with simple or compound leaves arranged alternately along the branchlets. The flowers are zygomorphic and typically arranged in pairs along a sometimes branched raceme at the ends of branchlets. The flowers are bisexual, usually with four tepals in a single whorl. There are four stamens and the gynoecium has a single carpel. The fruit is a thin-walled follicle that splits down only one side, releasing one or two seeds before the next growing season. he genus Grevillea was first formally described in 1809 by Joseph Knight from an unpublished manuscript by Robert Brown. Knight gave the spelling Grevillia, corrected by Brown in 1810 to Grevillea in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. The genus was named in honour of Charles Francis Greville, an 18th-century patron of botany and co-founder of the Royal Horticultural Society.