''Hakea megadenia'' is a shrub or tree of 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 an area along the east coast of

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

and the Furneaux Island group off the coast of Tasmania.

Description

''Hakea megadenia'' is an upright bushy spreading shrub or small tree high. The branchlets are covered densely in flattened hairs. The dull green leaves are needle-shaped or flattened long and wide ending in a sharp point. 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 ...

on female plants has 1-8 flowers and the male 3-14 flowers. The overlapping

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s long, the inflorescence stalk long hairy and rust coloured. The

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 ...

long with white flattened dense silky hairs extending to the whitish long

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 ...

. The fruit are S-shaped, long and wide. The white to cream flowers appear in leaf axils from February to July.

Taxonomy and naming

''Hakea megadenia'' was first formally described in 1991 by

R.M.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 ...

and published in ''Aspects of Tasmanian Botany - a tribute to Winifred Curtis''. 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 ...

''(megadenia)'' is derived from the

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''mega'' meaning "large" and ''aden, adenos'' meaning "gland", referring to the long gland in this species.

Distribution and habitat

This species is found on the east coast of Tasmania and the Furneaux group of islands. Growing at lower altitudes in coastal areas, river bushland or drier forest. On the islands it grows at higher altitudes with longer leaves and perianth and larger fruit.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18081536 megadenia Flora of Tasmania Plants described in 1991 Taxa named by Robyn Mary Barker