'' Hakea pachyphylla '' is a flowering plant 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 the upper Blue Mountains in New South Wales. It is a small shrub with stiff, needle-shaped leaves and clusters of yellow flowers. Formerly thought to be a Blue Mountains form of ''

Hakea propinqua ''Hakea propinqua'' is a flowering shrub in the family Proteaceae. It is a common shrub found in heathlands near Sydney. It has sharp, needle-shaped leaves, white unpleasantly scented flowers and large warty fruit. Description ''Hakea propinqua ...

''.

Description

''Hakea pachyphylla'' is a non

lignotuberous 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 ...

compact to spreading single stemmed shrub growing to high. 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 ...

consists of 1-7 yellow flowers that appear in axillary clusters in spring. The white main stalk is long covered with densely covered with short matted hairs. The small branches are ribbed and densely covered with soft mid-red matted hairs quickly becoming smooth or on occasion remain until flowering. The stiff needle-like leaves vary in length between long and wide with sparse flat hairs but quickly becoming smooth ending with a small point. Flowers from August to October followed by oval shaped fruit with small blunt wart-like protuberances long and wide with a short broad beak with obscure or no horns.

Taxonomy and naming

''Hakea pachyphylla'' was first formally described in 1827 by Curt Sprengel from an unpublished description by

Franz Sieber Franz Wilhelm Sieber (30 March 1789 – 17 December 1844), was a botanist and collector who travelled to Europe, the Middle East, Southern Africa and Australia. Early life Franz Sieber was born in Prague, Bohemia on 30 March 1789. After 5 ...

in ''Systema Vegetabilium''. 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 ...

(''pachyphylla'') 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 ...

words ''pachys'' (παχύς) meaning "thick" and ''phyllon'' (φύλλον) meaning "leaf"Backer, C.A. (1936). ''Verklarend woordenboek der wetenschappelijke namen van de in Nederland en Nederlandsch-Indië in het wild groeiende en in tuinen en parken gekweekte varens en hoogere planten'' (Edition Nicoline van der Sijs). referring to the thickness of the leaves.

Distribution and habitat

''Hakea pachyphylla'' has a restricted distribution occurring only in the Mount Victoria,

Leura Leura ( postcode: 2780) is a suburb in the City of Blue Mountains local government area that is located west of the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the series of small towns stretched along the Mai ...

Newnes Newnes (), an abandoned oil shale mining site of the Wolgan Valley, is located in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. The site that was operational in the early 20th century is now partly surrounded by Wollemi Nationa ...

area in swamp or heath or mallee-heath, occasionally on sandstone.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5640402 pachyphylla Flora of New South Wales