Grevillea beadleana

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

Common name:         Beadle's Grevillea

Conservation status: Endangered

• Grevillea beadleana is listed as "endangered" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and the New South Wales Government Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995

• The main threats to the species include inappropriate fire regimes, grazing by native animals and by livestock, and illegal collection

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 (beadleana) honours Noel Beadle

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are arranged in one-sided racemes in groups of twenty to ninety on the ends of branches, the rachis 35–50 mm long

• The flowers are grey to purplish with a burgundy to scarlet style, the pistil 15–18.5 mm long

• There are prominent bracts 5.7–6.2 mm long at the base of the flowers, but that are lost as the flowers open

• Flowering mainly occurs in late spring and summer and the fruit is a woolly-hairy follicle 9.0–10.5 mm long

Fruit:                         

Leaves:         

• Its leaves are mostly pinnatipartite, 80–165 mm long and 50–105 mm wide in outline, the ultimate lobes triangular and 20–110 mm wide at the base

• The lower surface of the leaves is densely covered with curled hairs

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• Grevillea beadleana is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.8–2.5 m

Habitat:   

• Forest and woodland in shallow soil over granite

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to NSW

• Beadle's grevillea occurs in four known populations. Most plants occur north of Torrington, the remainder in the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park, the Guy Fawkes River National Park and in the Orara River catchment

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Grevillea beadleana was first formally described in 1986 by Donald McGillivray in his book New Names in Grevillea (Proteaceae), based on specimens collected in 1982 by J.B. Williams near Chaelundi Falls in Guy Fawkes River National Park

  • The species was first collected near Walcha in 1887, but it has not been seen in that area despite extensive searches

Sources of information:

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