Grevillea juncifolia

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

Common name:         Honeysuckle Grevillea

• Also, honey grevillea, honeysuckle spider flower

• Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory give this grevillea many names including tharrkarr (Alyawarre), rrwerleng (Anmatyerre), irrwerlenge (Eastern Arrernte), tharrkarre (Kaytetye), ultukunpa (Pintupi Luritja), ultukunpa (Pitjantjatjara), jiriwuru (Warumungu) and walunarri (Warlpiri)

Conservation status: . . .

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 (juncifolia) means "rush-leaved"

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are arranged in branched clusters of fifteen to fifty on a rachis 50–170 mm long and are bright yellow, sometimes orange

• The pistil 18–27 mm long

• Flowering occurs in most months, with a peak from June to November

Fruit:                         

• and the fruit is a hairy follicle 15–29 mm (0.59–1.14 in) long

Leaves:         

• Its leaves are linear, 100–300 mm gong and 1–2 mm wide, or divided with more or less parallel lobes 15–220 mm long

• The edges of the leaves or lobes are rolled under with two parallel woolly-hairy grooves on the lower side

Stem & branches: 

• Has woolly-hairy branchlets

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A bushy shrub or small tree that typically grows to a height of 2–7 m 

Habitat:   

• Open shrubland or woodland on sandplains, stony hills and open plains

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to inland Australia

• Occurs in all mainland states and in the Northern Territory, but not in Victoria or Tasmania

• Subspecies temulenta is restricted to Western Australia

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy and naming

  • It was first formally described in 1848 by English botanist William Jackson Hooker in Thomas Mitchell's Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia

  • In 2008, Peter M. Olde and Neil R. Marriott described two subspecies of G. juncifolia in The Grevillea Book, and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

    • Grevillea juncifolia subsp. juncifolia - has leaves that are mostly or all with divided leaves

    • Grevillea juncifolia subsp. temulenta - has undivided, linear leaves

• Uses

  • Indigenous Australians use this grevillea for food and medicine

Sources of information:

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