''Hakea pendens'' 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

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 a small area in the Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia. It is a small shrub with needle-like leaves and pendulous pink flowers.

Description

''Hakea pendens'' typically grows to high and wide. The branchlets are densely covered in silky, flattened hairs until flowering and then the surface becoming whitish and waxy. The

terete Terete is a term in botany used to describe a cross section that is circular, or like a distorted circle, with a single surface wrapping around it.Lichen Vocabulary, Lichens of North America Information, Sylvia and Stephen Sharnoff/ref> This is us ...

, dark green leaves are long and about wide, crowded, stiff, and densely covered with silky, rusty coloured, flattened hairs, ending with a sharp point long. 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 ...

is a cluster of 6-8 pale pink pendulous flowers borne in leaf axils. Flowering occurs from August to September and the fruit is

obovate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

, smooth, grey, sometimes with darker grey speckling and about long and wide.

Taxonomy and naming

''Hakea pendens'' was first formally described in 1990 by

Robyn Mary 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 the description was published in the ''

Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Garden The Adelaide Botanic Garden is a public garden at the north-east corner of the Adelaide city centre, in the Adelaide Park Lands. It encompasses a fenced garden on North Terrace (between Lot Fourteen, the site of the old Royal Adelaide Hospital ...

'' from a specimen collected near

Marvel Loch Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comic ...

. 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 ...

(''pendens'') means "hanging down", referring to the flower.

Conservation status

''Hakea pendens'' is classified as " Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18080081 pendens Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1990 Taxa named by Robyn Mary Barker