Alloxylon pinnatum, known as Dorrigo waratah, is a tree of the family Proteaceae found in warm-temperate rainforest of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales in eastern Australia.

Classified as near threatened under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992, the Dorrigo waratah has proven difficult to keep alive in cultivation.

[4] First described as a variety of what was then known as Embothrium wickhamii by Joseph Maiden and Ernst Betche in 1911 after a collection by J.L.Boorman,[5] the Dorrigo waratah was raised to species status and reclassified as Oreocallis pinnata by Dutch botanist Hermann Otto Sleumer in 1954.

Hence, Oreocallis pinnata was given the new combination Alloxylon pinnatum in 1991 by Peter Weston and Mike Crisp of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney.

[10][11] Almost all these species have red flowers that are terminal (arising at the ends of branches), and hence the subtribe's origin and floral appearance most likely predates the splitting of the supercontinent Gondwana into Australia, Antarctica, and South America over 60 million years ago.

[12] The position, colour and tubular shape of the flowers suggest that they are bird-pollinated,[2] and have been so since the radiation of nectar-feeding birds such as honeyeaters in the Eocene.

[15] Cladistic analysis of morphological features within the Embothriinae showed A. pinnatum to be the earliest offshoot within the genus and sister to the other three species.

Hence the ancestral pollen colour was likely red, and remained so with the emergence of the genus Alloxylon, yet changed to yellow after the divergence of A. pinnatum.

[19] In April 2016, the Dorrigo waratah was one of eleven species selected for the Save a Species Walk campaign; scientists walked 300 km (190 mi) to raise money for collection of seeds to be prepared and stored at the Australian PlantBank at the Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan.

[21] The bright, prominently displayed flowers and bird-attracting properties of the Dorrigo waratah make it a desirable garden plant.

[3] The Dorrigo waratah has been successfully cultivated at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra in a sheltered position in part-shade with a thick layer of mulch.

[1] It has also been grown at Mount Tomah Botanic Garden, where it was noted to be exacting in its requirements, needing very good drainage as well as a sheltered location to survive.