Grevillea parvula

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Genoa Grevillea

Conservation status: Endangered

• This species is listed as "endangered" under the Victorian Government Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and as "Rare in Victoria" on the Department of Sustainability and Environment's Advisory List of Rare Or Threatened Plants In Victoria

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 (parvula) is the diminutive form of the Latin word parvus meaning "small", referring to the size of the leaves, flowers and follicles which are smaller than those of closely related grevilleas

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are arranged on the ends of branches or in leaf axils in down-turned clusters of 8 to 36 flowers, on a rachis 5–16 mm long

• The flowers are pinkish to red, the style red or reddish-pink, and the pistil is 17–20 mm long

• Flowering mainly occurs from October to March and the fruit is a glabrous follicle 17–19.5 mm long

Fruit:                         

Leaves:         

• Its leaves are usually ellicptic or narrowly elliptic, sometimes lance-shaped or narrowly egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, mostly 25–40 mm long and 8–18 mm wide

• The edges of the leaves are turned down, the upper surface of the leaves smooth, the lower surface densely silky-hairy

Stem & branches: 

• Has woolly- to shaggy-hairy branchlets

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A spreading, sometimes compact shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–2 m 

Habitat:   

• Forest near watercourses, sometimes in woodland, from sea level to an altitude of over 1,100 m

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to an area near the border between NSW and Victoria in south-eastern continental Australia

• It is found between Eden and the Main Range and near the Wallagaraugh and Towamba Rivers in the far south-east of NSW and in the far east of Victoria

Additional notes:    

• Taxonomy

  • This taxon was first formally described in 1870 as Grevillea victoriae var. leptoneura by English botanist George Bentham in the fifth volume of Flora Australiensis from specimens collected by Ferdinand von Mueller near the headwaters of the Genoa River

  • In 2000, Bill Molyneux and Val Stajsic raised the variety to species status as Grevillea parvula in the Flora of Australia

• Use in horticulture

  • The cultivar Grevillea 'Canterbury Gold' is a hybrid between a prostrate yellow form of Grevillea juniperina and this species

Sources of information:

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