Grevillea arenaria

Grevillea arenaria is an erect to spreading shrub that grows to a height of 0.3–4 m (1 ft 0 in – 13 ft 1 in). The leaves are elliptic to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, 15–75 mm (0.59–2.95 in) long and 3–15 mm (0.12–0.59 in) wide with the edges turned down or rolled under. The flowers are arranged in groups of two to six on the ends of short side branches along a rachis 1–10 mm (0.039–0.394 in) long, and are red, pink or orange and hairy. The pistil is 24–32 mm (0.94–1.26 in) long and the ovary is sessile. Flowers are present in most months with a peak in spring.[4][5]

Grevillea arenaria was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London from specimens collected near Port Jackson.[6][7]

The names of two subspecies are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

• Greville arenaria R.Br. subsp. arenaria,[8] commonly known as sand grevillea has leaves that are silky- or woolly-hairy on the lower surface and a gynoecium 22–27 mm (0.87–1.06 in) long;[2][4][9]
• Grevillea arenaria subsp. canescens (R.Br.) Olde & Marriott[10] commonly known as hoary grevillea has leaves that are velvety on the lower surface and a gynoecium 26–32 mm (1.0–1.3 in) long;[3][4][11]

This grevillea grows in open forest, often in rocky places, near creeks or cliffs in south-eastern New South Wales. Subspecies arenaria mostly occurs on the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range and nearby ranges from Richmond to the Deua River and subspecies canescens is mostly found on the drier, western side of the ranges, from Tamworth and Gilgandra to Bathurst and western parts of the Blue Mountains.[4][9][11]

• Grevillea arenaria: Images and occurrence data from Atlas of Living Australia