Grevillea anethifolia

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Spiny Cream Spider Flower

Conservation status: Vulnerable

• Grevillea anethifolia is listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 

• The species is predominantly restricted to roadside verges due to land clearing for agriculture

• These roadside verges are often subject to clearance and weed invasion

• In NSW, habitat destruction due to mining is considered a major threat to the species

Etymology:   

• The genus was named in honour of Charles Francis Greville, an 18th-century patron of botany and co-founder of the Royal Horticultural Society

• The specific epithet (anethifolia) means "anise-leaved"

Flowers:                  

• The leaves are 15–50 mm long and deeply divided with three to seven lobes, the lobes sometimes further divided

• Each lobe is linear to more or less cylindrical, 5–45 mm long and 0.4–1.2 mm long with a sharply pointed tip

• The flowers are arranged in loose, dome-shaped to more or less spherical groups 5–20 mm long

• The flowers are white to pale yellow or cream-coloured and glabrous, the pistil 4–6 mm long with a white style

• Flowering occurs from July to December

Fruit:                         

•  An oblong follicle 7.5–9 mm long

Leaves:         

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• An erect shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.5–2 m and sometimes forms rhizomes

Habitat:   

• Heath, shrubland and mallee, sometimes near creeks

Distribution:                  

• Between Southern Cross, Lake Grace, Zanthus and Cape Arid in south-western Western Australia, on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia and around Griffith in NSW

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Grevillea anethifolia was first formally described in 1830 by Robert Brown in his Supplementum primum prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grevillea_anethifolia (2024)