''Hakea leucoptera'' subsp. ''sericipes'' is a small tree with cylinder-shaped leaves and clusters of up to forty-five white fragrant flowers. It is found in northwestern

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

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 leucoptera'' subsp. ''sericipes'' is a small tree with an open canopy up to high, or may be a denser, multi-stemmed shrub high. It usually has straight, stiff branches and grey bark. The well spaced, long, needle-shaped leaves are a silver-grey, long, in diameter ending in a sharp point long covered in short, white silky hairs at first, but later becoming hairless. 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 ...

is a cluster of 18-45 yellow or creamy-white flowers scented flowers on a stem long and densely covered, with white, short, soft, matted hairs. The perianth is white, smooth and long. The fruit are smooth, egg-shaped, about long, wide ending with a broad beak. Flowering occurs from November to December.

Taxonomy and naming

''Hakea leucoptera'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown and the description was published in '' Transactions of the Linnean Society of London''. In 1996 William Baker described two subspecies of ''H. leucoptera'' in the '' Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Garden'', including this subspecies and subspecies ''leucoptera'', and the name is accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

. This subspecies differs from the autonym (subspecies ''leucoptera'') in having shiny hairs pressed against the

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

. The subspecies epithet (''sericipes'') is 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 ...

words ''sericeus'' meaning "silken" and ''pes'' meaning "a foot".

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies ''sericipes'' is found usually growing in coarse, heavier soils in New South Wales west of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

and contiguous plains, either as an individual tree or thickets of underbrush shrubs. Also in southern and central Queensland. In dryer areas of central Western Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q50921181 leucoptera Flora of Western Australia Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1996