''Hakea pedunculata'' is a shrub or small tree 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 ...

comprising approximately 150 species restricted to Australia. This species is found in the Far North region of Queensland and adjacent islands. It has flat, broadly egg-shaped leaves and white, cream or greenish flowers.

Description

''Hakea pedunculata'' is a shrub or small tree, that typically grows to a height of . It often has knobbly, finely cracked bark, and it branchlets are reddish. The leaves are flat, narrowly to broadly egg-shaped, a rounded apex, long and wide, young leaves thickly covered with white, shiny, flattened, hairs that are quickly shed. The inflorescence has up to forty cream-white or greenish white flowers on a

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

long, each flower on a slightly rough

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 that is covered with white soft hairs. Fruit are obliquely egg-shaped tapering at each end or three dimensional and long and wide, ending in a short backward curving beak about long. Flowering occurs predominantly from April to August and occasionally in February.

Taxonomy and naming

''Hakea pedunculata'' was first formally described in 1883 by

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 ...

from a specimen collected by a druggist, W. Anthony Persieh, from a specimen collected near Endeavour River and the description was published in ''The Australasian Chemist and Druggist''.Mueller, F.J.H. von (1883) Notes on new species of Hakea. Australasian Chemist and Druggist 6: 23 (''

Hakea persiehana ''Hakea persiehana'' is a shrub or small tree in the genus ''Hakea'' , which comprises approximately 150 species restricted to Australia. Most ''Hakea'' seed are usually dispersed by an environmental trigger rather than when seed matures, quite ...

'' was named in his honour by Mueller in 1886.) 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 ...

(''pedunculata'') is derived from the Latin word ''pedunculus'' meaning "a small, slender stalk", referring to its

- the stalk beneath the inflorescence, which is much longer than in other species of ''Hakea''.

Distribution and habitat

''Hakea pedunculata'' grows north of

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs ...

on Cape York Peninsula and on adjacent islands. It is often found in landward edges of mangroves or semi-swamp areas in low shrubland where ''

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They range in size ...

'' is dominant.

Ecology

The woodiness of ''Hakea'' is determined when the fruit ripens and the two valves open displaying a darker and lighter zone. Most ''Hakea'' seed are usually dispersed by an environmental trigger rather than when seed matures, quite often by fire. Whilst other species may require sporadic flooding rains to establish. Those species with a greater pale layer tend to retain their seed longer. ''Hakea pedunculata'' is unique in the Pedunculata group for its fruit woodiness and swampy habitat.

Conservation status

''Hakea pedunculata'' is considered "least concern" by the Department of Environment and Science, Queensland.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18079719 pedunculata Flora of Queensland Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1883