''Petrophile imbricata'' 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 southwestern Western Australia. It is a shrub with overlapping, needle-like leaves and oval heads of hairy cream-coloured flowers.

Description

''Petrophile imbricata'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and has hairy young branchlets. The leaves are needle-shaped, up to about long and overlap each other. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets 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 ...

, oval heads up to about in diameter, with many overlapping narrow egg-shaped involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are up to about long, cream-coloured and hairy. Flowering occurs from August to September and the fruit is a

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 an oval to slightly cup-shaped head up to about in diameter.

Taxonomy

''Petrophile imbricata'' was first formally described in 1995 by

Donald Bruce Foreman Don Foreman was an Australian botanist who worked on the Monimiaceae and Proteaceae of Australia. He also helped with the editing of selected Flora of Victoria and Flora of Australia Volumes. Career After Foreman graduated from the Univers ...

in ''

Flora of Australia The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 30,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, ...

'' from material he collected in

Boyagin Nature Reserve Boyagin Rock is located south west of Brookton and north west of Pingelly in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, which is approximately south east of Perth. The Boyagin Rock outcrop rises above the surrounding land and is an cresta ...

in 1985. 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 ...

(''imbricata'') refers to the overlapping leaves and involucral bracts.

Distribution and habitat

This petrophile grows in dense scrub, woodland and forest mostly near the

Dryandra Woodland The Dryandra Woodland National Park is a national park in Western Australia within the shires of Cuballing, Williams and Wandering, about south-east of Perth and north-west of the town of Narrogin. It is a complex of 17 distinct blocks ma ...

, Boddington, Boyagin Nature Reserve and Katanning in the

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low reli ...

and

Jarrah Forest Jarrah forest is tall open forest in which the dominant overstory tree is ''Eucalyptus marginata'' (jarrah). The ecosystem occurs only in the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia. It is most common in the biogeographic region named in ...

biogeographic regions of southwestern Western Australia.

Conservation status

''Petrophile imbricata'' 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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrophile imbricata

imbricata This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with classical languages to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms. The binomial nomenclature used for animals and plants i ...

Eudicots of Western Australia Endemic flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1995