 Habitat, Standley Chasm. Photo © I. Holliday. |
 Habit. Photo © I. Holliday. |
 Flowers and leaves. Photo © I. Holliday |
 Inflorescence and leaves. Photo © I. Holliday. |
 Note the red styles. Photo © D.Albrecht |
Synonymy
Hakea standleyensis Maconochie, Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. S. Australia 97: 127, fig. 1 (1973).
T: Standley Chasm, 53 km W of Alice Springs, N.T., 19 Sept. 1967, D.J.Nelson 1556; holo: DNA; iso: AD, BRI, K, NSW.
Description
Twisted multi-stemmed spindly shrub, 0.9–2 m tall, to 1 m wide. Branchlets and young leaves appressed-sericeous, quickly glabrescent. Leaves crowded at branchlet ends, terete, 2–9.5 cm long, 1.2–1.7 mm wide, usually curved, not grooved.
Inflorescence with 6–12 flowers; involucre 4–5 mm long; rachis 0.5–1.5 mm long; pedicels 5.5–8 mm long, white-tomentose, with some hairs appressed; hairs extending onto perianth. Perianth 5.5–7 mm long, white. Pistil 8.5–11 mm long.
Fruit obliquely obovate, 1.3–1.5 cm long, 4.5–6 mm wide, rugose, glaucous; apiculum to 1 mm long; horns lacking. Seed c. 10.5 mm long; wing apical only.
Distribution and ecology
Confined to the Macdonnell Ra., N.T., where it is found in skeletal soil in ledges of quartzite cliff faces.
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.–Oct.
Derivation of name
Named after one of its localities, Standley Chasm in the Macdonnell Ranges, near Alice Springs.
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 Microcarpa group all share the characteristics of needle leaves, oblique pollen presenter and non-woody, beaked, and sometimes horned, fruits which are not retained for any length of time on the bushes.
Members of the group are H. collina, H. microcarpa, H. recurva and H. standleyensis.
Notes
Not markedly different from H. collina , from which it differs in leaf and perianth length, pubescence type and also flowering time and habitat. The two taxa do not overlap geographically. There would also appear to be differences in the style colour from comparison of the images reproduced here, with H. collina not having the red style of H. standleyensis.
Conservation status
This species was treated as 'Rare' in J.D.Briggs & J.H.Leigh, Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (1995).
Representative specimens
N.T: Mt Giles, P.K.Latz 6621 (DNA); Ormiston Gorge, P.K.Latz 9423 (DNA); Hugh Gorge, Chewings Ra., P.K.Latz 9961 (DNA); Standley Chasm, J.R.Maconochie 464 (DNA).