Grevillea eriostachya
Grevillea eriostachya, also known as flame grevillea, orange grevillea, or honey grevillea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to western parts of Australia. It is a shrub with a leafy base, mostly linear leaves and conical groups of bright yellow flowers on long canes above the foliage. Description. "Grevillea eriostachya" is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and has a leafy base with long, arching flowering branches covered with woolly hairs. The leaves are long, those on the flowering stems linear, other leaves sometimes with two to seven  linear lobes, the leaves or lobes mostly long. The flowers are borne above the foliage in sometimes branched, conical groups of about 100 to 200 flowers on peduncles up to long, the rachis long, the flowers at the base of each group opening first. The flowers are green in bud, later bright yellow and woolly-hairy, the pistil long. Flowering occurs in all months and the fruit is a follicle long. Taxonomy. "Grevillea eriostachya" was first formally described in 1840 by John Lindley in "A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony". The specific epithet ("eriostachya") means "woolly  flower-spike". Distribution and habitat. Flame grevillea grows in heath or shrub on sandplains and is widespread in arid and semi-arid areas of Western Australia, the south-west of the Northern Territory and far north-western South Australia. Ecology. Nectar-eating birds are attracted to the flowers. Uses. Because of the sweet taste of the shrub's flowers, Aboriginal Australians used it as a sweetener and to add variety to their meals.