''Hakea orthorrhyncha'', commonly known as bird beak hakea, is a shrub which 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 the Murchison River area 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 orthorrhyncha'' has a spreading habit, growing to between tall with a similar spread. The bright red flowers appear in axillary clusters in the leaf nodes on older growth along the branches from early winter to early spring. Leaves vary, they may be needle-like or flat and sometimes forked, curved or straight ending in a sharp point between long. Smooth woody fruit are either egg-shaped or

elliptic In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special type of ellipse in ...

long and wide.

Taxonomy and naming

The species was first described in 1868 by botanist

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vict ...

who gave it the specific epithet ''orthorrhyncha'' which is derived from the Greek ''orthos'' "straight" and ''rhynchos'' "beak" alluding to the straight beak on the seed capsules. The common name, bird beak hakea, is presumed to be a confusion between the Greek words for straight and bird. There are two varieties of the species, based on differing foliage characteristics: * ''Hakea orthorrhyncha'' var. ''filiformis'' F.Muell. ex Benth. has a spreading rounded growth habit to high, finely textured needle-like dark green leaves often divided up to long with a groove on the underside of the leaf. This variety grows in the Murchison River to Mingenew area. *''Hakea orthorrhyncha'' F.Muell. var. ''orthorrhyncha'' rounded shrub to has flat long and narrow leathery leaves wide and long. This variety is confined to the northern sandplains of the Kalbarri region.

Distribution and habitat

''Hakea orthorrhyncha'' grows on the

Geraldton Geraldton (Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...

sand plains on grey sand, loam and

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5640401 orthorrhyncha Eudicots of Western Australia Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1868