Fern-leaf spider flower is a native Australian shrub from the Sydney Basin, grown for its fern-like, silky-backed foliage and pinkish-fawn toothbrush flowers. It adapts readily to cultivation, especially in part shade with moist, well-drained soil.
Family
Proteaceae (Protea family)
Grows as
Shrub, Fern
Light
Part shade, Bright indirect
Water
Keep soil evenly moist while establishing and water regularly in dry spells; avoid waterlogging.
Soil
Well-drained, sandy or loamy soil, ideally acidic to neutral
Temperature
10–30 °C; protect from frost
How easy
Moderate
Native range
E. New South Wales
Climate
subtropical
About
Grevillea longifolia, commonly known as fern-leaf spider flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the Sydney Basin in New South Wales. It is an erect to spreading shrub with narrowly egg-shaped to almost linear leaves, and toothbrush-like groups of pinkish-fawn flowers with a pink to red style. It is fairly readily grown in gardens.
How to grow it
Grevillea longifolia adapts readily to cultivation, and can be propagated vegetatively by cutting as plants have a tendency to hybridise, making seed parentage unclear. It is grown commercially in the south of France for its foliage. It is sometimes sold mistakenly labelled as G. aspleniifolia.
Where it grows
Grevillea longifolia is restricted to the Sydney Basin, particularly the southern areas and Woronora Plateau. It is found in the Heathcote and Royal National Parks, but has vanished from the Burwood and Carlton districts where it once grew. It grows on Hawkesbury Sandstone and yellow clay soils, often along riverbanks and streams. It grows in shaded or part-shaded situations in woodland or forest, under such trees as blue leaved stringybark (Eucalyptus agglomerata), Sydney peppermint (E. piperita), stringybark (E. oblonga), smooth-barked apple (Angophora costata) and red bloodwood (Corymbia gummifera), and shrubs such as gymea lily (Doryanthes excelsa), and near creeks with such shrubs as Lomatia myricoides, watergum Tristania neriifolia, kanooka (Tristaniopsis laurina) and trees blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis) and coachwood (Ceratopetalum apetalum).
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Grevillea longifolia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.