''Isopogon alcicornis'', commonly known as the elkhorn coneflower, is a 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 is endemic to part of the South Coast Western Australia. It is a low shrub with

pinnately Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

-lobed leaves and oval heads of hairy, white or pink flowers.

Description

''Isopogon alcicornis'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of about and has hairy pale brown to gray branchlets. The leaves are mostly pinnately lobed with two to five flat lobes, linear to lance-shaped and long on a petiole up to or sometimes longer. The flowers are arranged in sessile, oval or elliptic heads up to in diameter on the ends of branchlets, each head with hairy, pink flowers often hidden by the leaves. There are hairy, spatula-shaped

involucral bracts In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, ...

at the base of the flowering head. Flowering mainly occurs from October to November and the fruit is a hairy nut, fused in an oval head up to in diameter.

Taxonomy

''Isopogon alcicornis'' was first formally described in 1903 by Ludwig Diels in ''Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie''.

Distribution and habitat

Elkhorn coneflower grows in low shrubland on the near Esperance and on Mount Baring near the

Cape Arid National Park Cape Arid National Park is a List of national parks of Australia, national park located in Western Australia, southeast of Perth. The park is situated east of Esperance, Western Australia, Esperance and lies on the shore of the South coast of W ...

in the south-west of Western Australia.

Conservation status

This isopogon 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 en ...

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

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18076711 alcicornis Eudicots of Western Australia Taxa named by Ludwig Diels Plants described in 1904