''Hakea longiflora'' is a small 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 ...

to Western Australia. It has sharp, short, needle-like leaves with white flowers and a prominent red style.

Description

''Hakea longiflora'' is an upright shrub that typically grows to high and forms a

lignotuber 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 ...

. The evergreen compound-terete and rigid leaves have an undivided base that is in length and not grooved on lower surface. There are two or three ultimate segments with a length of and wide. It blooms from June to September and produces yellow flowers. Each simple

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 composed of two flowers at different stages of development. It has a white

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 ...

that is long and covered in matted hair. The smooth fruits that form later are covered in black blisters and have an obliquely narrowly ovate shape and a length of and a width of with a long beak. The seeds inside have a boomerang shape with a wing at the end and a length of .

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist

Robyn Mary Barker Robyn M. Barker (born 1948) is an Honorary Research Associate of the South Australian Herbarium. She now works part-time, her duties include maintenance of the Vascular Plant Census for the State. Barker's research interests also include syst ...

in 1990 as part of the work ''New species, new combinations and other name changes in Hakea (Proteaceae)'' as published in the ''Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens''. The only synonym is ''Hakea erinacea'' var. ''longiflora'' as described by

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studi ...

in 1870. 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 said to be 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 ...

words ''longus'' meaning ''long'' and ''florus'' meaning "flower", referring to the long flowers of this plant compared to '' Hakea erinacea'' which Bentham thought this species was a variety of. The proper word for "flower" in classical and botanical Latin is however ''flos''.Lewis, C.T. & Short, C. (1879). ''A Latin dictionary founded on Andrews' edition of Freund's Latin dictionary.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.Stearn, W.T. (1983). ''Botanical Latin. History, grammar, syntax, terminology and vocabulary.'' (3rd edition). Newton Abbot London: David Charles.

Distribution

It is

to an area between

Dandaragan Dandaragan is a small town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The name of Dandaragan was first recorded in 1850 as the name of a nearby gulley and spring or watering hole known as Dandaraga spring. The word is Indigenous Australian i ...

and Coorow in the Wheatbelt region 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 ...

where it is found in and among breakaways growing in sandy-loamy-gravelly soils. It is usually in low open heath land communities often over

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

. Although the species has a small range it is quite common within the area.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18080275 longiflora Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1990