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Habit and habitat. Photo © L.Haegi

Habit. Photo © L.Haegi

Foliage. Photo © G.Watton

Inflorescences. Photo © I.Holliday

Young fruits. Photo © W.R.Barker

Fruits. Photo © W.R.Barker

Seedling with flat leaves. Photo © W.R.Barker

Synonymy

Hakea victoria J.Drumm., The Inquirer, without page number (1847); J.Drumm., Companion Bot. Mag. (n.s.) Suppl. Bot. Mag. 74: 2–3 (1848)

T: West Mount Barren.....between it and Mount Barren, W.A., s.d. [1846], J.Drummond s.n. [4: 300]; syn: MEL 108118, NY p.p.

Hakea drummondii G.Don, in J.C.Loudon, Encycl. Pl., 2nd Additional Suppl. 1296 (1855), nom. nud.

Description

Erect sparingly-branched shrub, 1.3–3.5 m tall, non-sprouting. Leaves alternate, flat and narrowly elliptic in lower parts, concave and almost circular in flowering parts, rigid, 4–11.5 cm long, 40–130 mm wide, undulate, spinulose-dentate, rounded to emarginate, mucronate; veins palmate and reticulate, prominent above and below, coalescing at base into a cream patch often turning reddish with age.

Inflorescence with 26–42 flowers; pedicels 6–11 mm long, glabrous. Perianth cream, split to base abaxially only. Pistil 33–37 mm long; gland obovoid.

Fruit 2–4 per axil, obliquely broadly elliptic, 2.3–2.8 cm long, 1.5–2 cm wide, not or shortly beaked, shortly apiculate, becoming corky with age. Seed obliquely broadly ovate, 18–20 mm long, 9–12 mm wide; wing extending narrowly down both sides of body, blackish brown throughout.

Distribution and ecology

Restricted to the Barren Ra., south-west of Ravensthorpe on the south coast of W.A., where in places it is a common and sometimes dominant shrub emergent from scrub-heath in quartzitic or lateritic sand, often in rocky situations.

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 July–Oct.

Derivation of name

To this most splendid vegetable production which I have ever seen, in wild or cultivated state, I have given the name of our gracious Queen, Hakea Victoria. It will soon be in cultivation in every garden of note in Europe, and in many other countries. (James Drummond's original newspaper account of this species in 1847).

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Relationships

Part of Sect. Conogynoides recognised by Bentham (1870) and characterised by a conical pollen presenter, veined leaves, glabrous perianth and fruits without horns.

 

Within this section 5 species were assigned to the informal Corymbosa group by Barker et al. (1999). This group has yet to be tested for monophyly but can be recognised morphologically by whorled, rigid leaves in the flowering branches and erect fruits.

 

Members of the group are H. acuminata, H. cinerea, H. corymbosa, H. eneabba and H. victoria, all from SW WA.

Notes

The conflorescence in H. victoria is annular when viewed from above, a feature of possible significance in its pollination ecology.

See R.M.Barker, Nuytsia 11: 1–9 (1996), for a discussion of the publication of this species by James Drummond in the W.A. newspaper The Inquirer.

Conservation status

This species was treated as 'Poorly Known' in J.D.Briggs & J.H.Leigh, Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (1995).

Representative specimens

Western Australia: Fitzgerald River Natl Park, 39 km S of Ravensthorpe on road to Hamersley Estuary, B.Barnsley 513 (CANB, PERTH); Mt Bland, Fitzgerald River Natl Park, A.S.George 10068 (AD, CANB, K, PERTH).

Weblinks

Link to FloraBase treatment of this species for WA.

Link to the Australian Native Plants Society (Australia) pages on Hakea. This species is covered here with an image, cultivation notes and brief notes about it.

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

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Further illustrations

I. Holliday, Hakeas. A Field and Garden Guide 216-7 (2005)

J.A..Young, Hakeas of Western Australia. A Field and Identification Guide 118 (2006).