''Hakea eyreana'', commonly known as straggly corkbark, is a tree 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 ...

to arid parts of inland Australia. It has needle-shaped leaves, greenish-yellow flowers and oblong to egg-shaped fruit.

Description

The bushy to slender tree typically grows to a height of . The tree is able to resprout from the base and has densely white-haired branchlets. The compound and terete leaves have a length of . It blooms from May to November and produces greenish-yellow flowers. The axillary

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 ...

s contain 35 to 105 greenish to yellow flowers. The glabrous woody fruits that form following flowering have an oblong to ovate shape and are in length with a long beak. The seeds within take up most of valve and have a wing that goes half way along one side.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally identified by the botanist Donald McGillivray in 1975 as part of the work ''Australian Proteaceae: New taxa and notes'' as published in the journal '' Telopea''.McGillivray, D.J. (1975
Australian Proteaceae: New taxa and notes.
Telopea 1(1): 30 The name is commonly misapplied to '' Hakea divaricata''. 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 taken from the area in which the type specimen was collected near

Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in east-central Far North South Australia, some north of Adelaide. The shallow lake is the depocentre of the vast endorheic Lake Eyre basin, and contains the ...

which in turn is named in honour of the explorer Edward John Eyre.

Distribution

The tree is

to an area in the Simpson Desert and Channel Country in outback

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

and the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

where it is found on sand dunes, sand plains, swales and gibber flats growing in sandy or stony soils.

Uses

The flowers contain a large amount of nectar, to the extent where it can be sipped from a straw. The nectar is also mixed with water to make a sweet drink.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18080932 eyreana Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Flora of South Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Plants described in 1975