''Hakea costata'', commonly known as the ribbed hakea, is a shrub in the family

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Pro ...

native to Western Australia. A multi-stemmed small shrub producing attractive pink or white brush-like blooms rich in nectar from July to October.

Description

''Hakea costata'' is an erect non-

lignotuberous A lignotuber is a woody swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem, such as by fire. Other woody plants may develop basal burls as a similar survival strategy, often as a response t ...

shrub growing to high. The smaller branches are densely covered in long soft straight hairs when flowering. Leaves vary depending on where they appear on the shrub. Near the flowers the leaves are mostly linear, rigid and triangular in cross-section long and wide. The leaves below flowers are flat, narrowly egg-shaped to oval shaped wide. The leaves upper surface have no obvious veins whereas the underside has a prominent mid-vein. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

has 8-12 strongly scented white or pink flowers in

racemes A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

long appearing in leaf axils from July to October. The

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

is cream-white,

pistil Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

long. The small fruit are attached to the stem without a stalk, more or less egg-shaped long and wide slightly curved ending with a short beak. The fruit surface is smooth to slightly warty. The black-brown seeds are more or less elliptic shaped with a wide wing down one side and a narrower wing down the other.

Taxonomy and naming

''Hakea costata'' was first formally described by the botanist Carl Meissner in 1845 and published in Johann Georg Christian Lehmann's book ''

Plantae Preissianae ''Plantae preissianae sive enumeratio plantarum quas in australasia occidentali et meridionali-occidentali annis 1838-1841 collegit Ludovicus Preiss'', more commonly known as ''Plantae preissianae'', is a book written by Johann Georg Christian Leh ...

''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

(''costatus'') meaning "ribbed", referring to the longitudinal ribbing of the leaves.

Distribution

Ribbed hakea is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to an area along the west coast in the Wheatbelt and

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

regions of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

from about Kalbarri in the north to Yanchep in the south growing in sandy soils over

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

laterite Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18080037 costata Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1845 Taxa named by Carl Meissner