Large-flowered short-styled grevillea facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Large-flowered short-styled grevillea |
|
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
Scientific classification  |
|
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Proteales |
| Family: | Proteaceae |
| Genus: | Grevillea |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: |
G. b. subsp. grandis
|
| Trinomial name | |
| Grevillea brachystylis subsp. grandis Keighery
|
|
The large-flowered short-styled grevillea (scientific name: Grevillea brachystylis grandis) is a special type of plant that belongs to the Grevillea brachystylis family. It's a beautiful shrub found only in a small part of Western Australia. This plant is very rare and needs our help to survive.
Contents
What Does This Plant Look Like?
The G. brachystylis grandis is usually a small to medium-sized shrub. It grows to be about 0.3 to 1 metre (1.0 to 3.3 ft) tall. Its branches are smooth and not covered in a waxy layer. The leaves are simple, meaning they are not divided into smaller leaflets. They are quite long, about 70 to 120 millimetres (2.8 to 4.7 in), and narrow, about 2 to 10 millimetres (0.08 to 0.39 in) wide.
This grevillea produces pretty red flowers from August to September. An inflorescence is a cluster of flowers on a single stem. These flowers are often irregular in shape.
Where Does This Plant Live?
This special shrub lives only in a small area along the west coast of the South West region of Western Australia. It is found in the Whicher Range, which is south of the town of Busselton. It likes to grow in loamy or sandy soils. You can often find it among medium to tall trees and other shrubs.
The area where it lives is quite small, only about 10 square kilometres (2,471 acres). Sadly, some of these areas are also home to other plants like Watsonia meriana var. bulbillifera and Juncus microcephalus, which can sometimes cause problems for the grevillea.
Why Is This Plant Endangered?
The large-flowered short-styled grevillea is very rare. It is only found in six separate places. These places are often small strips of land, like road reserves, between farms. Much of its original home has been cleared for farming.
Because it is so rare, this subspecies was listed as Critically Endangered in Western Australia in 2002. This means it is at a very high risk of disappearing forever. In 2005, experts counted only about 176 plants left in the wild.
Helping the Grevillea: A Translocation Program
To help save this plant, a special program called a translocation was started. Translocation means moving plants or animals from one place to another to help them survive.
Between 2009 and 2012, about 1000 seeds were carefully collected from the remaining plants. Then, in 2012, 92 young plants (seedlings) were planted in a safe nature reserve. In 2013, another 172 seedlings were planted nearby.
This program has been very successful! After the first two years, almost all the plants (97% to 99%) were still alive. Most of them (95%) even started to flower, and many (80%) produced fruit. This gives hope that the large-flowered short-styled grevillea can be saved for future generations.
