Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Silver Oak, Silk Oak

Hindi Name : सिल्वर ओक | Scientific Name : Grevillea robusta
Family : Proteaceae
Uses : The flowers are one of the richest sources of nectar. It is reported as a honey tree in Australia. It is cultivated in India, Sri Lanka and Kenya as a shade tree, to shade crops such as tea and coffee, because of its fast growth and good adaptation to tropical highland climates. It is also cultivated for fuel wood, including firewood and charcoal, protective windbreaks and honey production. The plant yields small quantities of a gum resin, leaves contain rutin. Intense yellow and green dyes are obtained from the leaves. This tree is one of the most important reafforestation trees in Nepal. This species is more resistant than other members of the genus to root-rotting fungus, it is sometimes used as a rootstock for the more susceptible species. Wood - strong, silky textured, light, easily split, durable but porous. Used for panelling, joinery, cabinet making etc.
Native: Eastern Australia
General Description:

Straight evergreen tree, 10-25m tall. Leaves 15-33cm long; leaflets 7-19, 3-12cm long, sessile, entire or pinnatifid, olive green above, silver grey silky hairy beneath; margin recurved. Racemes 5-15cm long, appearing on the old wood, solitary, 2 or a few forming a panicle. Flowers solitary, in twos or threes; pedicel 1-1.5cm long, glabrous, leaving a permanent white lenticular scar. Sepals 1.5-2cm long, hooded, at first all fused together except on one side, later on fused in twos basally and apically, free for the greater length in the middle, these pairs in their turn free from each other or slightly fused above, orange yellow to orange or golden yellow to lemon yellow with dark red inner base. Stamens sessile; connective not produced beyond the anther cells; anthers about 1mm long. Disc semi-annular. Gynophore about 2-3mm long. Ovary glabrous; style lemon yellow, 1-2.5cm long, dilated at the apex and bearing a greenish-yellow 1 mm long stigmatic cone. Follicle 2-seeded, 1.5-2.5cm long, about 1cm broad, silver grey to olive green, dehiscent. Seeds 1-1.5cm long, 0.5-1cm broad, broadly winged, thin, ovate, non-endospermic.