Conospermum unilaterale
Conospermum unilaterale is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a compact or open shrub with spoon-shaped leaves, spike-like panicles of woolly, white, tube-shaped flowers and hairy nuts.
Description
Conospermum unilaterale is a compact or open shrub that typically grows to a height of up to. Its leaves are spoon-shaped, long, wide. The flowers are borne in spike-like panicles on a peduncle long with egg-shaped, glabrous bracteoles long and wide but with a woolly base. The flowers are white and woolly, forming a tube long, the upper lip long, wide and blue, the lower lip with narrowly oblong to oblong lobes long and wide. Flowering occurs from August to October, and the fruit is a nut about long and wide with golden, woolly hairs.
Taxonomy
Conospermum unilaterale was first formally described in 1995 by Eleanor Marion Bennett in the Flora of Australia from specimens she collected near Lake Indoon in 1985. The specific epithet means 'on one side' referring to the flowers mostly turned to one side of the branches.
Distribution and habitat
This species of smokebush grows on sandplains and undulating sandhills, in the Badgingarra-Eneabba area in the Geraldton Sandplains bioregion of south-western Western Australia.
Conservation status
Conospermum undulatum is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.