Synonymy

Hakea verrucosa F.Muell., Fragm. 5: 25 (1865), p.p.

T: Western Australia, without date, Anon. s.n.; lecto: MEL 675664, fide R.M.Barker, Fl. Australia 17B: 393 (1999); ?isolecto: B p.p. (herb. Bernhardi, excluding fruit), BR (2 sheets, excluding fruit on one sheet), CANB (ex herb. Lawson), L, MEL 675673, NY (Torrey herb.), NY; possible remaining syn: Ex horto MEL, without date, ?F.Mueller s.n.; syn: BR, L, MEL 1537947, MEL 675665, NY (Torrey herb.); Western Australia (cultivated), without date, Anon. [F.Mueller] s.n.; syn: MEL.

Images of 4 specimens inLeiden, all ex MEL, represent flowering or vegetative specimens and can be seen on the Nationaal Herbarium Nederland site.

Excluded syntypes (flowering specimens of H. propinqua labelled as H. verrucosa F.Muell.): Western Australia, without date, Anon. s.n.; syn: BM (herb. Hance 19556), BR (herb. F.Mueller), DBN, E, G-DC, L (ex herb. F.Mueller), P (ex herb. van Heurck).

Excluded syntypes (fruiting specimens of H. propinqua labelled as H. verrucosa F.Muell.): Western Australia, without date, Anon. s.n.; syn: B p.p. (herb. Bernhardi, fruit only), BR p.p. (fruit only).

Description

Rounded rarely semi-prostrate shrub, 0.8–2.6 m tall, c. half as wide as high, non-lignotuberous. Branchlets appressed-pubescent, ferruginous.

Leaves simple, 2–6.3 cm long, 1–1.5 mm wide, appressed-sericeous, quickly glabrescent; mucro 1–2 mm long. Inflorescence erect or ?pendent in older axes, with 7–14 flowers; rachis branched, 3–16 mm long, tomentose; pedicels 2.5–4 mm long. Perianth 6–9 mm long, cream-white turning pink, deeper with age. Pistil 21–25 mm long; pollen presenter a ±lateral disc.

Fruit obliquely obovate, 2.2–3.1 cm long, 1.2–1.4 cm wide, pusticulate; apiculum 2–3 mm long; horns 2.5–5 mm long. Seed 13–22 mm long; wing broadly and partly down one side of seed body.

Distribution and ecology

Occurs in the Ravensthorpe area of south-western Western Australia Found in clay, clay-loam, sandy loam, gravelly laterite, granite, ironstone or sand in mallee scrub or in Myrtaceous/Proteaceous heath.

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 May–Aug.; cultivated specimens from Qld flowering in Sept.

Derivation of name

When naming this species Mueller had the fruit of H. propinqua and the flowers of what we know as H. verrucosa.

The epithet 'verrucosa', which is Latin for "full of warts", really refers to the verrucose fruit of H. propinqua (see there for an illustration of the fruit). However this name had been used for so long with respect to this particular species that the type was chosen to reflect this usage.

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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 5 species were assigned to the informal Verrucosa group by Barker et al. (1999). This group is not monophyletic but is held together by the shared morphological characteristics associated with bird pollination. All species have large pink or red flowers in which the tepals remain fused, splitting to the base only between the upper pair, and they have a long pistil, usually with a lateral pollen presenter.

Members of the group are H. bakeriana, H. pendens, H. purpurea, H. rhombales and H. verrucosa. While two of the species are found in SW WA and two are found in eastern Australia one of them (H. rhombales ) is found in central Australia.

Notes

Leaves on dried specimens frequently have oval c. 3–5 mm long brownish patches of the fungus Vizella (I.Pascoe, pers. comm.) along their length. There is also a tendency for leaves along a branch in this species to all point in one direction.

Representative specimens

Western Australia: 11 km E of Ravensthorpe, H.Demarz D7942 (PERTH); Mainnerup Rocks, W of Ravensthorpe, A.S.George 157 (PERTH); Ravensthorpe–Hopetoun road, W.Rogerson 335 (PERTH); Fitzgerald River Reserve, R.D.Royce 8962 (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

I. Holliday, Hakeas. A Field and Garden Guide 214-5 (2005)

J.A..Young, Hakeas of Western Australia. A Field and Identification Guide 117 (2006).

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