''Hakea erecta'' 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 ...

'' 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 ...

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 a dense rounded shrub with linear twisted leaves and up to 24 pink or white fragrant flowers appearing in leaf axils in spring.

Description

''Hakea erecta'' is a rounded 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 which typically grows to a height of and has many spreading branches and smooth grey bark. Branchlets are silky with dense flat hairs at flowering. The leaves may be either smooth or hairy, long and wide, linear, flat and twisted at the base and end in a sharp point. Leaves have a prominent centre vein and 3 veins on the underside. The single

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 16-24 pink-cream sweetly scented flowers in a

raceme 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 ...

and appear in clusters in the leaf axils mostly in upper branchlets. 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 pink or white,

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 pink and smooth. The

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

is long. Flowering occurs from September to October. The oblong to egg-shaped fruit has a smooth surface except for a few tubercles, ending with a small pointed beak.

Taxonomy and naming

This hakea was first formally described in 1987 by

Byron Lamont Byron Barnard Lamont (born 2 January 1945) is a Western Australian botanist. He is currently a senior researcher within the Department of Environmental Biology of Curtin University of Technology. A specialist in ecology of the flora of the South ...

from a specimen collected near

Pingrup Pingrup is a small town in the Great Southern (Western Australia), Great Southern region of Western Australia. The name of the town is Indigenous Australian in origin and was the name of a lake that is close to the townsite. The meaning of Ping ...

and the description was published in the ''

Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society The ''Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society'' is a scientific journal publishing original papers relating to the taxonomy of all plant groups and fungi, including anatomy, biosystematics, cytology, ecology, ethnobotany, electron microscopy, mo ...

''. 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 ...

(''erecta'') is a

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 meaning "upright", referring to the more or less erect stems, leaves and fruit.

Distribution and habitat

It is

to an area in the

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

, Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions of

where it grows in scrubland and low woodland on deep sandy soils often around

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 ...

Conservation status

''Hakea erecta'' 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

''Hakea erecta'' is a frost-tolerant, long-flowering, mid-sized shrub with attractive scented blooms. It is an adaptable species, forming into dense thickets providing a good wildlife habitat and low windbreak.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18079965

erecta This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with classical languages to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms. The binomial nomenclature used for animals and plants i ...

Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1987