Scientific Name: Grevillea robusta
Common Names:
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial, Evergreen
Growth Habit: Tree
Flower Color: Golden orange
Height: Up to 100 feet (30 m) tall, but usually less
Description: The flowers are clustered on the top side of horizontal, 5 inch (12.7 cm) long, brushlike inflorescence. The individual flowers have 0 petals, 4 sepals, and 4 orange stamens. The flowers contain abundant sweet nectar and attract nectar-feeding birds. The flowers are followed by blackish brown, hurricane symbol-shaped seed follicles containing 1 or 2 winged seeds. The leaves are olive green and mostly hairless above, brownish to silvery and silky-hairy below, fern-like, and deeply bipinnately divided into narrow, linear to lanceolate segments with curled under margins. The young branches are hairy and rusty brown in color. The trunk is tall and straight and has gray, rough, furrowed outer bark and orange-brown inner bark.
Here in Hawaii, Grevillea robusta or Silk Oak grows in dry forests and sunny open areas like pastures and rangelands from low to middle elevations. The plants produce an allelopathic substance that inhibits the growth of other plants. The trees have been used for reforestation, shade, firewood, and lumber. The attractively patterned wood is known as lacewood, and it is used for woodworking even though the sawdust is allergenic and can cause contact dermatitis in some woodworkers.
Classification:=
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae – Protea family
Genus: Grevillea R. Br. ex Knight – grevillea
Species: Grevillea robusta A. Cunn. ex R. Br. – silkoak