Grevillea synapheae
Grevillea synapheae, commonly known as catkin grevillea, is species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a prostrate to erect shrub usually with divided leaves with 3 to 7 triangular to more or less linear lobes, and clusters of white to creamy yellow flowers.
Description
Grevillea synapheae is a prostrate to erect, lignotuber-forming shrub that typically grows to a height of, its branches glabrous to sparsely woolly-hairy. The leaves are variable but mostly wedge-shaped with 3 to 7 triangular to more or less linear lobes long and wide. The flowers are arranged in clusters with up to 6 branches, each branch cylindrical on a rachis long. The flowers are white to creamy yellow, the pistil long. Flowering occurs from July to October, and the fruit is a wrinkled, elliptic to oval follicle long.This grevillea is closely related to G. trifida, G. muelleri and G. prominens.
Taxonomy
Grevillea synapheae was first formally described by botanist Robert Brown in 1830 in Supplementum primum Prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae from specimens collected in the Swan River Colony by Charles Fraser. The specific epithet refers to similarity of the leaf shape and flower colour to the genus Synaphea.The names of five subspecies are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:Grevillea synapheae subsp. A Flora of Australia WA Herbarium is a sprawling shrub, the leaves with 3 to 7 narrow lobes sometimes further divided, the end lobes straight, rigid and narrowly triangular, long and wide.Grevillea synapheae subsp. latiloba Makinson is a mounded to spreading or erect shrub, the leaves with 3 to 5 deeply divided lobes usually further divided, the end lobes triangular to oblong, long and wide.Grevillea synapheae subsp. minyulo Makinson is a low, spreading to sprawling shrub, the leaves almost pinnatisect, usually with 7 lobes usually further divided, the end lobes linear, long and wide.Grevillea synapheae subsp. pachyphylla Olde & Marriott is a shrub up to tall, the leaves mostly divided with 3 to 5 lobes sometimes divided again, the end lobes egg-shaped to oblong, long and wide. Grevillea synapheae R.Br. subsp. synapheae is a prostrate to low, spreading shrub, the leaves usually deeply divided with 3 to 7 lobes often divided again, the end lobes narrowly oblong to narrowly triangular, long and wide.
Distribution
All five subspecies of G. synaphaea occur in the south-west of Western Australia.- Subspecies A is only known from Mount Misery near Dandaragan in the Geraldton Sandplains bioregion, where it grows in heath.
- Subspecies latiloba grows in woodland or shrubland from near Bindoon to Mogumber in the Jarrah Forest bioregion.
- Subspecies minyulo grows in heath in the Dandaragan-Cataby area in the Geraldton Sandplains and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions.
- Subspecies pachyphylla usually grows in open heath on rocky hills from near Badgingarra to Eneabba in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions.
- Subspecies synapheae is moderately common on and to the east of the Darling Range, including from Perth suburbs to as far south as Narrogin and Williams, and as far north as Gingin and Toodyay in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions.