''Hakea smilacifolia'' 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 sweetly scented flowers, stiff leathery leaves 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 an area in the

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

, western Wheatbelt and the Goldfields-Esperance regions of

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 ...

Description

''Hakea smilacifolia'' is an open, sprawling shrub typically growing to a height of with smooth grey bark and does not form a lignotuber. The branchlets are moderately covered with long, soft hairs or coarse, rough long hairs. The hairs becoming short, soft, rusty coloured and matted at flowering. Flowers are mostly concealed by thick leathery alternate leaves long by wide. The grey-green leaves vary in shape, lower leaves are elliptic to egg-shaped. Leaves nearer to the flowers are broader and taper to a point at the apex. The leaves are often folded over and have curving prominent veins. 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 5 or 6 white or creamy-white flowers, are sweetly scented and appear in clusters in the leaf axils. The smooth

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 ...

is long, the

pistil Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

long and the

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

white. The fruit are smooth, very small and have a 3 dimensional shape, long and wide and taper to a short pointed beak.

Taxonomy and naming

''Hakeas smilacifolia'' was first formally described by Carl Meisner in 1845 and published the description in ''

Plantae Preissianae ''Plantae preissianae sive enumeratio plantarum quas in australasia occidentali et meridionali-occidentali annis 1838-1841 collegit Ludovicus Preiss'', more commonly known as ''Plantae preissianae'', is a book written by Johann Georg Christian Leh ...

''. 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 ...

refers to a similarity of the leaves of this species to one in the genus '' Smilax''.

Distribution and habitat

Grows from the northern sandplains at Three Springs ranging south to Gingin. There is also a recorded population west of Esperance. Grows in heath and scrubland in sand and gravel. Requires good drainage and sunny aspect.

Conservation status

''Hakea smilacifolia'' 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=Q18081636 smilacifolia Eudicots of Western Australia