Species of shrub in the family Proteaceae endemic to Western Australia
Grevillea cunninghamii is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the north of Western Australia. It is a shrub with egg-shaped leaves with sharply-pointed teeth on the edges, and clusters of red flowers.
Description
Grevillea cunninghamii is a prickly shrub that typically grows to a height of 1.2–4 m (3 ft 11 in – 13 ft 1 in), its branchlets and leaves glabrous. The adult leaves are egg-shaped, 40–90 mm (1.6–3.5 in) long and 30–55 mm (1.2–2.2 in) wide with 13 to 21 spine-like, sharply-pointed teeth on the edges. The flowers are arranged in loose, more or less spherical clusters on a rachis 2–6 mm (0.079–0.236 in) long, the pistil 8.0–9.5 mm (0.31–0.37 in) long. The flowers are red and pale red to yellow with a red style. Flowering mostly occurs from May to September and the fruit is an oblong follicle 9.0–10.5 mm (0.35–0.41 in) long.[3][4]
Taxonomy
Grevillea cunninghamii was first formally described in 1830 by Robert Brown in the Supplementum primum prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae from specimens collected by Allan Cunningham in 1820.[5][6] The specific epithet (cunninghamii) honours the collector of the type specimens.[7]
Distribution and habitat
Grevillea cunninghamii usually grows in open scrub communities in near-coastal regions and off-shore islands between Cape Londonderry and King Sound in the Dampierland, Northern Kimberley and Victoria Bonaparte biogeographic regions of northern Western Australia.[3][4]
