''Hakea erinacea'', commonly known as hedgehog or porcupine 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 ...

endemic to

south-west The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

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 ...

Description

''Hakea erinacea'' is erect in habit, with spiny short

terete Terete is a term in botany used to describe a cross section that is circular, or like a distorted circle, with a single surface wrapping around it.Lichen Vocabulary, Lichens of North America Information, Sylvia and Stephen Sharnoff/ref> This is us ...

leaves, and grows to over 1.5 metres in height and about the same width. The flowers are cream to white in colour with red to purple pistils and are produced between May and November. The small smooth fruit are narrow, curved and end in a short pointed beak. Many Hakea retain their fruit, however this species sheds its seed when ripe.

Taxonomy and naming

''Hakea erinacea'' was first described in 1845 by

Carl Meisner Carl Daniel Friedrich Meissner (1 November 1800 – 2 May 1874) was a Swiss botanist. Biography Born in Bern, Switzerland on 1 November 1800, he was christened Meisner but later changed the spelling of his name to Meissner. For most of his 40 ...

and the description was published in ''Proteaceae. Plantae Preissianae''. It derives its name from the Latin ''erinaceus''-a hedgehog, referring to its very spiky leaves.

Distribution and habitat

''Hakea erinacea'' grows on sandy loam, clay and lateritic gravel on the coastal plains and the

Darling Ranges The Darling Scarp, also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to t ...

north of Perth.

Conservation status

''H. erinacea'' is presently listed by Western Australian government as "not threatened".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5640387

erinacea ''Erinacea'' is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the famil ...

Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1845