''Hakea cucullata'', commonly known as hood-leaved hakea, cup hakea or scallop hakea, is a species of

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

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 ...

and 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 the south-west 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 ...

. It is an attractive shrub with distinctive foliage and beautiful large pink, red, or deep purple scented flowers.

Description

''Hakea cucullata'' is an erect shrub growing to a height of with few branches. The young branches are densely covered with short hairs and the flowering stems have dark brown hairs. The leathery leaves are broad egg-shaped long and wide. Often with wavy or finely toothed margins and a prominent mid-vein ending in a point at the apex. The leaves are pale green in colour, more or less overlap, distinctly cupped around the stem, flowers and fruit. 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 ...

consists of 25 to 30 deep pink flowers appearing in the leaf axils or at leafless nodes on bright pink stalks long. 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 deep pink at the base paler toward the tip. The

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

s are long and smooth. The style is smooth, straight and long. Flowering mainly occurs from August to October. The woody egg-shaped fruit are long and wide in groups of 1-5 in leaf axils.

Taxonomy and naming

''Hakea cucullata'' was first described by Robert Brown in 1830 from a specimen collected by William Baxter in 1824 and the description was published in ''

Supplementum primum Prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae ''Supplementum primum Prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae'' ("First supplement to the Prodromus of the flora of New Holland") is an 1830 supplement to Robert Brown's ''Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen''. It may be referred to ...

''. 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 ...

(''cucullata'') 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 ...

word ''cucullatus'' meaning "hooded".

Distribution and habitat

Hood-leaved hakea is found in the

Stirling Range The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, south-east of Perth. It is over wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranb ...

, south-western

, east to the Whoogarup Range in the

Esperance Plains Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton bioregions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region. It is a pl ...

Jarrah Forest Jarrah forest is tall open forest in which the dominant overstory tree is ''Eucalyptus marginata'' (jarrah). The ecosystem occurs only in the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia. It is most common in the biogeographic region named in ...

and

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...

biogeographic regions where it grows in sandy mallee heath and occasionally in gravelly

lateritic 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 ...

soils.

Conservation

''Hakea cucullata'' is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

Use in horticulture

Scallop hakea is reasonably hardy as a garden plant and has been grown successfully on Kangaroo Island. It is easily propagated from seed and has been successfully grafted onto ''

Hakea salicifolia ''Hakea salicifolia'' commonly known as the willow-leaved hakea, is species of flowering plant that is endemic to eastern Australia. It is an adaptable, fast growing small tree or shrub with attractive foliage and cream white flowers. Descript ...

'' root stock.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18042400 cucullata Eudicots of Western Australia Trees of Mediterranean climate Plants described in 1830 Endemic flora of Western Australia Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)