Grevillea caleyi is a rare grevillea that comes from a small area of northern Sydney. The name of the genus, Grevillia, was given in honour of Charles Francis Greville-an Englishman who collected and propagated plants of, and within, New South Wales during the early part of the nineteenth century. The species name, caleyi, was given after George Caley-the NSW botanical agent of Joseph Banks.

This grevillea is a shrub that can potentially reach a size of four metres wide by four metres tall. The branches have a spreading habit.

• Leaves-up 18cm long and 7cm wide, deeply lobed to the mid-rib with 19-36 oblong lobes and recurved margins (leaf edges), covered in soft, rusty-coloured hairs
• Flowers-look like a toothbrush: one-sided racemes with a hairy axis, between 4 and 8am long, the perianth (collective name for female reproductive parts-calyx and corolla) has the same rusty hairs as the leaves, the style is red. Flowers are pollinated by birds. Late winter to spring. Fruit is 2cm by 1 cm, pale and hairy with reddish stripes.
• Distribution-this grevillea has a small area of distrubution. It exists in an 8km² area within the Sydney suburbs of Terry HIlls/Duffys Forest, Belrose and Ingleside within the Northern Beaches and Ku-ring-gai Council areas.
• Soil-laterite soils, which are acidic, coarse and infertile, but are rich in iron and aluminium
• Habitat and ecology-this plant exists on ridgetops between an elevation o 170m and 240m above sea level, in an open forest plant community, dominated by larger trees like Eucalyptus seiberi and Eucalyptus gummifera. Grevillea caleyi is killed by fire, with seeds within the soil required for regeneration-as it doesnt produce seed until around 5 years old, and has low fecundity and low seed dispersal and high predation, there is an an estimated 8-12 year period required for the soil seed bank to contain enough seed to replace the existing population.

While I couldn’t find any nursery with any specimens of this species for sale at the time of writing, I do think that it is a reallly nice grevillea that is worth protecting in it’s native habitat. The fact that it is a rare and endangered species makes this even more worthwhile.

• Robinson, L., Field Guide to the Native Plants of the Sydney Region, 3rd Edition, 2003, Simon & Schuster, Cammeray, NSW, Australia
• http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/provile.aspx?id=10, accessed 19/09/2022
• Fairley, A., Moore, P., Native Plans of the Sydney Region, 3rd edition, 2010, Tacana Books, Crows Nest, NSW, Australia
• All photos are my own, taken at Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden in August 2022