Grevillea asteriscosa

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Star-leaf Grevillea

Conservation status: . . .

• This grevillea is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to a population decline of at least 80% over the past 60 years due to a combination of factors such as land clearing for agriculture and roads and the invasion of weeds

• It is also listed as "Priority Four" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that is rare or near threatened

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 (asteriscosa) means "abounding in little stars"

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are arranged in groups of four to ten on the ends of branchlets on a rachis 1–3 mm long and are bright red

• The pistil is 15.5–19.5 mm long and the ovary is covered with hairs flattened against the surface

• Flowering occurs from May to November 

Fruit:                         

• An oblong follicle 9–12 mm (long

Leaves:         

• Its leaves are star-shaped 5–10 mm long and 8–18 mm wide with three to nine sharply-pointed triangular lobes

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A shrub with hairy, widely-spreading branches and that typically grows to a height of 0.3–2.6 m 

Habitat:   

• Heath and scrub 

Distribution:                  

• Between Muntadgin, Pingaring and Bullaring in the Avon Wheatbelt and Mallee biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Grevillea asteriscola was formally described in 1904 by German botanist Ludwig Diels in Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie, based on plant material collected about 150 kilometres north of the Stirling Range

Sources of information:

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