Synonymy

Hakea candolleana Meisn., in J.G.C.Lehmann, Pl. Preiss. 2: 262 (1848)

Hakea falcata var. ?subuninervis Meisn., in J.G.C.Lehmann, Pl. Preiss. 1: 572 (1845), replaced synonym. T: Canning River, Western Australia, 15 Jan. 1841, L.Preiss 603; syn: B, BR, G, HBG, LD, LE, M, MEL, ?MO, NY, P; south-western Western Australia, without date, J.Drummond 605; syn: ?BM p.p., G, K, LE, MEL, P.

An image of the NY type specimen of Preiss 603 can be seen on the New York Botanical Garden site and the Leiden type specimen on the Nationaal Herbarium Nederland site.

Hakea candolleana Meisn. var. campylorrhyncha F.Muell. ex Benth., Fl. Austral. 5: 504 (1870). T: Murchison R., Western Australia, without date, A.Oldfield s.n.; syn: B, MEL 108129, MEL 108126.

Description

Shrub 0.15–1.6 m tall, usually wider than high, lignotuberous. Branchlets tomentose or appressed-pubescent, with hairs ferruginous or white, sometimes quickly glabrous and glaucous. Leaves flexible, flat or trigonous, rarely terete, narrowly linear, 2.5–13 cm long, 1–4 mm wide, not twisted at base, attenuate, entire, rounded apically, tomentose, quickly glabrescent.

Inflorescence axillary with 6–8 flowers; involucre 2–3 mm long; pedicels 1.5–4 mm long, woolly-tomentose or appressed-sericeous, with hairs white or cream-yellow, extending onto perianth. Perianth 2–2.6 mm long, cream-white. Pistil 3–3.2 mm long.

Fruit sigmoid, 1.8–4.2 cm long, 1.2–2.5 cm wide, black-pusticulate. Seed 13.5–30 mm long; wing encircling seed body.

Distribution and ecology

Occurs from Kalbarri to south of Perth and inland to Tammin in Western Australia, in sand in low heath with Dryandra or Banksia prionotes and Thryptomene prolifera or in Melaleuca shrubland or on clay flats with Kingia, Xanthorrhoea and Melaleuca.

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 June–Sept.

Derivation of name

Named after de Candolle, probably Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, a Swiss botanist, trained in Paris, who reorganised plant classification following Linnaeus and began the monumental Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetablis in 1824. Composed of 17 volumes, the last 10 (which included Hakea, in volume 14) were edited by his son, Alphonse de Candolle.

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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.

The Incrassata group consists of just two species from SW WA, H. incrassata and H. candolleana, which are probably not each other's closest relatives. Both have flat leaves and tiny flowers with pubescent pedicels and perianths, oblique pollen presenters and woody, sigmoid fruits which are retained on the bushes; the seed body is completely surrounded by a wing. Their closest relations morphologically would appear to be with the Rostrata or the Obliqua groups between which they have been placed in Barker et al. (1999).

While H. incrassata does not have an S-shaped fruit, the fruit of H. candolleana is more obviously sigmoid and does suggest a relationship to the Rostrata group.

Notes

Vegetatively this species is easily confused with H. stenophylla, but the latter is usually a small tree and lacks involucral buds in the axils. Flowers are also much larger in H. stenophylla and occur at the apex of a branched peduncle.

The detection of any pattern in the variability of this species will require further collections and field investigations. Specimens from the Tammin to Moora area have terete leaves and small fruit c. 2 cm long (Newbey 1958) while those from the rest of the range usually have flat leaves with variable fruit size. Fruit of Newbey 2113 are particularly large (to 4 cm long).

Representative specimens

W.A.: near Arrowsmith R. on the Dongarra road, c. 50 km W of Mingenew, A.M.Ashby 3250 (AD); 21 km W of Kalbarri turn-off from North West Coastal Hwy, 8 km NW of Mt View, A.C.Beauglehole 1927 (PERTH); 3.2 km S of Tammin, K.Newbey 1958 (PERTH); 11 km SE of Irwin, K.Newbey 2113 (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

J.A..Young, Hakeas of Western Australia. A Field and Identification Guide 20 (2006)

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