Grevillea lanigera

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

• Grevillea lanigera, commonly known as woolly grevillea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia

• It is a spreading shrub with narrowly oblong to more or less linear leaves and clusters of pink to red, and cream-coloured flowers

Common name:         Woolly Grevillea

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 (lanigera) means "wool-bearing"

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are arranged in clusters of two to ten on a rachis 2.5–10 mm long and are pale pink to red and cream-coloured

• The style is shaggy- or woolly-hairy except near its tip, the pistil 13.5–19.5 mm long and hairy inside

• Flowering mainly occurs from July to December, but flowers are sometimes present in other months

Fruit:                         

• The fruit is a shaggy-hairy, elliptic to oblong follicle 10–15 mm long

Leaves:         

• Narrowly oblong to more or less linear, 5–40 mm long and 0.7–5 mm wide, with the edges turned down or rolled under

• The lower surface of the leaves is shaggy-hairy

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• Grevillea lanigera is usually a spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of 20–50 cm , sometimes a dense rounded shrub to 2 m high

• The species is variable in habit, features of the leaves and abundance of flowers, and forms hybrids with G. rosmarinifolia, G. polybractea and G. floribunda

Habitat:   

• Moist, rocky places in scrub, woodland and forest

Distribution:                  

• South from near Dubbo and east of the Riverina in NSW, mainly on the coast and tablelands through the ACT to eastern Victoria

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Grevillea lanigera was first formally described in 1830 by Robert Brown in his Supplementum primum Prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae from specimens collected near the Lachlan River by Allan Cunningham 

• Use in horticulture

  • This grevillea is popular in cultivation and can be grown from seed or from cuttings. It is hardy in a range of climate and soil conditions

  • It is drought and frost hardy but prefers a sunny position in the garden

Sources of information:

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