''Isopogon uncinatus'', commonly known as Albany cone bush, is a species of 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 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 a restricted area near Albany in Western Australia. It is a small shrub with very short stems, linear to egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and spherical heads of yellowish flowers. It is the rarest isopogon and was thought to be extinct until rediscovered in the 1980s.

Description

''Isopogon uncinatus'' is a spreading shrub that typically grows to about and wide and has very short, densely hairy, brownish branchlets. The leaves are linear to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long, and wide, usually with a hooked tip, especially when young. The flowers are arranged in

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

, spherical heads in diameter, surrounded by clusters of leaves near the base of the plant. The flowers are up to long and yellowish, glabrous near the base but densely silky-hairy near the tip. Flowering has been recorded in October and the fruit is a hairy

nut Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut or Nuts may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Com ...

, fused with others in a more or less spherical head up to in diameter.

Taxonomy

''Isopogon uncinatus'' was first formally described in 1830 by Robert Brown in the '' Supplementum'' to his '' Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen'' from material collected by William Baxter at King George's Sound. 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 ...

(''uncinatus'') means "hooked".

Distribution and habitat

Albany cone bush grows in stunted

jarrah ''Eucalyptus marginata'', commonly known as jarrah, djarraly in Noongar language and historically as Swan River mahogany, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a tree with roug ...

scrub in swampy depression and on hillslopes near Albany where it is only known from nine small populations.

Conservation status

This is the rarest isopogon and was thought to be extinct until rediscovered in the 1980s. It is listed as "critically endangered" under the Australian Government '' Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' and as " Threatened Flora (Declared Rare Flora — Extant)" by the Department of Environment and Conservation (Western Australia). The main threats to the species are disease caused by '' Phytophthora cinnamomi'', inappropriate fire regimes and drought.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18083829 uncinatus Endemic flora of Southwest Australia Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1830 Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)