''Hakea obliqua'', commonly known as needles and corks, 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 ...

'' 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 an area in the Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Goldfields-Esperance regions 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 ...

Description

''Hakea obliqua'' is an erect, dense shrub typically growing to a height of and does not form 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 branchlets and new growth are rusty coloured. The leaves are needle-shaped, rigid, thick and long, wide ending in a sharp, erect 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 ...

consist of 2-8 white-cream-yellow flowers sometimes with a greenish tinge on a stem long. The strongly scented flowers are in clusters in the leaf axils. 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 ...

s are long and densely covered with flattened silky white hairs that extend onto the 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

pistil Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

is long. The large rounded fruit are long and wide. The young fruit are smooth and as they age the surface becomes covered in thick angular cork outgrowths. The fruit taper at the apex with either a curved or straight point long. Flowering occurs from May to October.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first described by Robert Brown in 1810 and published the description in ''Transactions of the Linnean Society London''. 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 ...

''obliqua'' is 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 ...

''obliquus'' - "oblique, referring to the nectar gland which is on a slant from the flower axis".

Distribution and habitat

Hakea obliqua is found in southern Western Australia from the

Stirling Range The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, south-east of Perth. It is over wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranb ...

to Albany area to

Israelite Bay Israelite Bay is a bay and locality on the south coast of Western Australia. Situated in the Shire of Esperance local government area, it lies east of Esperance and the Cape Arid National Park, within the Nuytsland Nature Reserve and the Grea ...

and inland to

Pingrup Pingrup is a small town in the Great Southern (Western Australia), Great Southern region of Western Australia. The name of the town is Indigenous Australian in origin and was the name of a lake that is close to the townsite. The meaning of Ping ...

. Grows in heath and scrubland on sand and sandy loam.

Conservation status

Hake obliqua is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18081513 obliqua Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1810 Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)