''Hakea propinqua'' is a flowering 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 ...

. It is a common shrub found in

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

s near

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. It has sharp, needle-shaped leaves, white unpleasantly scented flowers and large warty fruit.

Description

''Hakea propinqua'' is a bushy shrub tall with unpleasantly scented, small, pale yellow or white flowers occurring in

umbels In botany, an umbel is an inflorescence that consists of a number of short flower stalks (called pedicels) that spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs. The word was coined in botanical usage in the 1590s, from Latin ''umbella'' "p ...

along branchlets in leaf axils. The leaves are thin,

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 ...

, about long, wide, ending with a sharp tip about long. The leaves are softer and at a smaller angle to the stem than the related Needlebush. The warty fruit are egg shaped-

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 ending with two small horns.Les Robinson - Field Guide to the Native Plants of Sydney, page 98

Taxonomy and naming

''Hakea propinqua'' was first formally described in 1825 by Allan Cunningham and the description was published in ''Geographical Memoirs on New South Wales''. The species name is derived from the Latin ''propinquus'', meaning near, referring to the similarity to ''

Hakea nodosa ''Hakea nodosa'', commonly known as yellow hakea, is a shrub that is endemic to Australia. It usually has golden yellow flowers in profusion and needle-shaped leaves. Description ''Hakea nodosa'' is an erect, sprawling shrub usually growing to ...

''.

Distribution and habitat

''Hakea propinqua'' grows from coast to ranges on sand or light loam over sandstone in woodland and heath in the

region to the Blue Mountains.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5640407 propinqua Flora of New South Wales