Citation: R. Br., Trans. Linn. Soc. 10:72 (1810).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Cone-bush, horny cone-bush, wild Irishman.

Description:
Prickly shrub 0.2-0.6 rarely to 1.2 m high; branchlets red-brown, sparsely villous; leaves rigid, divaricate towards the branchlet apices, 4-8 cm long, glabrous, rarely sparsely villous, pinnatisect, the lateral segments dichotomously or subtrichotomously divided, flat, the ultimate segments many, linear-lanceolate, rarely triangular, 1-13 mm long, pungent, the petiole linear, 2-4.5 cm long, with a dilated base.

Flowering cones transverse-ellipsoid to globular, c. 1.5 cm diam., sessile, surrounded by leaves; rhachis cylindrical; outer bracts and scales drying brown-red, closely imbricate, the outer bracts broad-ovate, cuspidate, glabrous or ciliate, the cone scales narrower, hirsute on the lower half outside; flowers yellow; perianth glabrous, 10-20 mm long, sometimes with a tuft of white bristles at the apex of each segment; anthers 1.4-2.3 mm long; pollen-presenter in the basal half papillose, hardly dilated, constricted above and then dilated into a globular region, in the apical half narrowed into a filiform glabrous brush 1.4-1.8 mm long, dilated at the very apex into a stigma-bearing cup.

Fruiting cones c. 2 cm diam.; nuts ovoid, 2.5-3 mm long, tapering into the style base, villous.

	twig, inner bract, flower and fruit
Image source: fig. 78 in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Cochrane et al. (1968) Flowers and plants of Victoria, fig. 2.

Distribution:  In sand, rarely sandy clay, in sclerophyllous shrubland, woodland and forest. S.Aust.: NL, MU, SL, KI, SE.   Vic.; Tas. Conservation status: native Flowering time: July — Jan.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available