Common name: Pink Spider Flower
Grevillea sericea (Sm.) R.Br. APNI* Description: Shrub 0.5–2 m high, leaves often in whorls of 3.
Leaves elliptic to oblanceolate or rarely sublinear, mostly 2.5–9 cm long and 2–9 mm wide, margins entire and recurved, lower surface silky to loosely subvillous.
Inflorescences usually decurved, secund, 1.5–6 cm long. Perianth pink, rarely mauve, red or white, subsericeous outside, bearded inside. Gynoecium 14–19 mm long; ovary stipitate, glabrous; style pink, rarely mauve, red or white, glabrous except for short erect hairs near the apex.
Follicle glabrous.
Flowering: all months, mainly August–December
Distribution and occurrence: Usually in dry sclerophyll forest, sandy soils on sandstone; from southern Sydney to near Newcastle and west to the Blue Mtns area and the Goulburn R. catchment.
NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, CT, CWS
Plants from riparian flood-zone habitats in the lower Blue Mountains (subsp. riparia) have long narrow leaves and deep mauve flowers. Plants from the NW of the range tend to have consistently small leaves and are rhizomatous. White-flowered plants of G. sericea are known from the Heathcote area.
Text by R. O. Makinson
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the subspecies | |
| 1 | Leaves obovate to elliptic or narrowly so and ≤6 cm long (usually ≤3 cm long) and 3–9 mm wide; some or all conflorescences standing clear of the foliage; flowers deep to pale pink or white. | subsp. sericea |
| Leaves linear and 6–12 cm long, 1–3 mm wide; conflorescences usually enclosed within the foliage; flowers purplish pink. | subsp. riparia |
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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