''Hakea rhombales'', commonly known as walukara, is a 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 has red, pink or purple flowers 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 ...

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 ...

and the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Description

The bushy shrub typically grows to a height of and is usually just as wide. It blooms from April to September and produces red-pink-purple flowers. The branchlets and young leaves are appressed-pubescent with ferruginous hairs but otherwise

glabrescent Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

. The simple leaves are long and wide. Inflorescence are erect and sometimes from old wood, they contain 10–16 flowers with simple rachis that are long. The inflorescence is glabrous or appressed-pubescent with pedicels approximately long. The fruit are formed in an obliquely obovate shape, long and wide. The fruit are black-pusticulate with a toothed crest found on either side of suture.

Taxonomy and naming

''Hakea rhombales'' was first formally described by the 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 ...

in 1876 in '' Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae''. The name of the species is from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''rhombus'' referring to the shape of the wing on the seed.

Distribution and habitat

Walukara has a scattered distribution through area in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

and the

Goldfields Goldfield or Goldfields may refer to: Places * Goldfield, Arizona, the former name of Youngberg, Arizona, a populated place in the United States * Goldfield, Colorado, a community in the United States * Goldfield, Iowa, a city in the United Sta ...

regions of Western Australia where it is found on sand dunes, plains and hillsides growing in sandy or loamy soils. Its range extends east into the

to around the Petermann Range.

Conservation status

''Hakea rhombales'' is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

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 ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18080114 rhombales Eudicots of Western Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Plants described in 1876 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller