Synonymy

Hakea pandanicarpa R.Br., Suppl. Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. 29 (1830) subsp. pandanicarpa

T: inter Cape Arid et Lucky Bay, Western Australia, [1824], W.Baxter s.n.; ?holo: BM.

Hakea roei Benth., Fl. Austral. 5: 499 (1870). T: int. S.W. Australia, without date, J.S.Roe s.n.; ?holo: K.

Description

Small tree or shrub, rounded or erect, 1–4 m high, non-lignotuberous. Branchlets and young leaves appressed-pubescent, ferruginous. Leaves simple, narrowly elliptic or obovate, 3–12 cm long, 0.3–1.6 cm wide, attenuate, entire, rounded, rarely truncate.

Inflorescence a raceme with 4–14 flowers; rachis 3–10 mm long, tomentose; pedicels 5–7.5 mm long, densely appressed-pubescent with hairs ferruginous and white, extending onto perianth. Perianth 6–11 mm long, cream-white inside. Pistil 13–16 mm long; gland U-shaped.

Fruit obliquely obovate, 4.5–5.5 cm long, 3.7–4.5 cm wide, with corky tetrahedral protuberances of ±uneven size. Seed broadly ovate, elliptic or obovate, 25–36 mm long; wing encircling seed body.

Distribution and ecology

Occurs from Ravensthorpe to Israelite Bay, near the south coast of 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 Oct.–Nov.

Derivation of name

From pandanus, a genus of plants and carpa, Greek for fruit, a reference to the pandan-like fruits of this species.

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How the infraspecific taxa differ

Subspecies pandanicarpa and subspecies crassifolia can be distinguished by the ornamentation of the fruit surface. Ssp. pandanicarpa has decidedly raised corky tetrahedral projections on the fruit from a young age, as can be seen in the photograph here, while ssp. crassifolia is more or less smooth at a young age, developing a rougher but still comparatively smooth corky layer with age. The pattern on the outer layer of the fruit of ssp. crassifolia resembles that of drying mud in a claypan.

Ssp. pandanicarpa also tends to have a more easterly distribution than ssp. crassifolia. It is found from Ravensthorpe to Isaelite Bay while ssp. crassifolia occurs in the Newdegate-Albany-Ravensthorpe area.

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.

Representative specimens

Western Australia: near Grasspatch, May 1924, C.A.Gardner s.n. (PERTH); near Gibson, C.A.Gardner & W.E.Blackall 1116 (PERTH); Ravensthorpe Ra., highest point on road N of Elverdton Copper Mine, J.W.Green 4520 (PERTH); SE of Boyatup Hill, L.Haegi 1243 (PERTH); between the Hamersley R. and East Mount Barren, B.R.Maslin 888 (PERTH).

Weblinks

Link to FloraBase treatment of this species for WA.

For further information and images of this species in the Esperance region of Western Australia see William Archer’s Hakea page in Esperance Wildflowers

More photographs of this species can be seen on the Australian National Botanic Gardens site.

An image on the web at www.bkaussi.de/images/AustrWildblum/Hakea%20nitida.jpg labelled as H. nitida is almost certainly H. pandanicarpa.

Further illustrations

J.W.Wrigley & M.Fagg, Banksias, Waratahs & Grevilleas 385 (1988);

W.R.Elliot & D.L.Jones, Encycl. Austral. Pl. 5: 222 (1990)

I. Holliday, Hakeas. A Field and Garden Guide 156-7 (2005)

J.A..Young, Hakeas of Western Australia. A Field and Identification Guide 86 (2006)

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