 Leaves and young inflorescences. Photo © I.Holliday |
 Inside opened flowers. Photo © I.Holliday |
 Young bud: note the appressed hairs characteristic of this species. Photo © I.Holliday |
Synonymy
Hakea brownii Meisn., in J.G.C.Lehmann, Pl. Preiss. 1: 569 (1845)
T: between R. Gordon and Warrcup [Warriup] Hills, Western Australia, 6 Nov. 1840, L.Preiss 552; syn: B, G, G-DC (microfiche seen), MEL, NY, P.
An image of the NY type specimen of Preiss 552 can be seen on the New York Botanical Garden site.
[Hakea baxteri auct. non R.Br.: A.S.George, Introd. Proteaceae W. Australia 66 (1984)]
Description
Spreading or erect shrub, 0.4–2.5 m tall, lignotuberous. Branchlets and young leaves densely appressed-ferruginous, glabrescent by flowering. Leaves flabelliform with deeply concave margins, 2.8–6.5 cm long, 2.3–7 cm wide, narrowly cuneate, entire, broadly rounded apically, spinose.
Inflorescence umbelliform with 6–10 flowers; rachis obscure; pedicels 2–6 mm long, densely appressed-sericeous, with hairs ferruginous, continuing onto perianth. Perianth 5–7 mm long. Pistil 7–9 mm long; gland U-shaped.
Fruit obliquely broadly obovate to obovate, 3.5–5 cm long, 4–4.5 cm wide, coarsely rugose or rugose-reticulate. Seed elliptic or obovate, 25–30 mm long; wing encircling seed body.
Distribution and ecology
Occurs on sand plains and in sandy heaths from Three Springs south to Ongerup, with possibly erroneous old records from Stirling Ra. and Albany, Western Australia.
To plot an up to date distribution map based on herbarium collections for this species see Australia's Virtual Herbarium. Localities outside the native range may represent cultivated or naturalised records.
Flowering time
Flowers Sept.–Nov.
Derivation of name
Named after the well-known botanist, Robert Brown (1773-1858). Brown accompanied Matthew Flinders on the voyage of the Investigator (1801-5) to
Relationships
Part of Section Hakea of Bentham (as Euhakea) and characterised by a non-conical pollen presenter, leaves without obvious venation, perianths with or without hairs and fruits with or without horns. Barker et al. (1999) recognised a number of informal morphological groups within the section.
Within this section 6 species were assigned to the informal Ceratophylla group by Barker et al. (1999). The group is close to the Obliqua group, sharing the morphological characteristics of few-flowered inflorescences with pubescent flowers on an obscure rachis, oblique pollen presenters and distinctly woody fruits without horns and usually without beaks and seed in which the wing encircles the seed body or is broadly down one side; the groups differ in the flat leaves of this group compared with the terete leaves of the Obliqua group.
Members of the group are H. baxteri, H. brownii, H. ceratophylla, H. flabellifolia, H. hookeriana and H. pandanicarpa, all from south-west WA.
Notes
Distinguishable from H. baxteri , its sister species with which it shares the fan-shaped leaves, by its flowers with an appressed-sericeous indumentum, different wood structure in the fruit with a narrow red-brown wood zone basally and the possession of a lignotuber. It occurs further north than H. baxteri from the Stirling Ranges.
Representative specimens
W.A.: between Pingrup and Ongerup, W.E.Blackall 3119 (PERTH); 11 km NW of Jitarning, D.B.Foreman 1130 (AD, MEL, PERTH); 8 km W of Mogumber township, A.S.George 11212 (AD, PERTH); 27 km by road SW of Three Springs on Eneabba road, P.S.Short 2409 & L.Haegi (AD, MEL, PERTH).
Weblinks
Link to FloraBase treatment of this species for WA.
More photographs of this species can be seen on the Australian National Botanic Gardens site.
Further illustrations
A.S.George, Introd. Proteaceae W. Australia 66 (1984); as H. baxteri
J.W.Wrigley & M.Fagg, Banksias, Waratahs & Grevilleas 366 (1988), as H. baxteri ;
J.Young, Hakeas of W. Australia, Botanical District of Avon 13, 30 (1997).
J.A..Young, Hakeas of Western Australia. A Field and Identification Guide 18 (2006)