Hakea megadenia

Hakea megadenia is a shrub or tree of the family Proteaceae endemic to an area along the east coast of Tasmania and the Furneaux Island group off the coast of Tasmania.

Description

Hakea megadenia is an upright bushy spreading shrub or small tree high. The branchlets are covered densely in flattened hairs. The dull green leaves are needle-shaped or flattened long and wide ending in a sharp point. The inflorescence on female plants has 1–8 flowers and the male 3–14 flowers. The overlapping bracts long, the inflorescence stalk long hairy and rust coloured. The pedicel long with white flattened dense silky hairs extending to the whitish long perianth. The fruit are S-shaped, long and wide. The white to cream flowers appear in leaf axils from February to July.

Taxonomy and naming

Hakea megadenia was first formally described in 1991 by R.M.Barker and published in Aspects of Tasmanian Botany - a tribute to Winifred Curtis. The specific epithet is derived from the Ancient Greek mega meaning "large" and aden, adenos meaning "gland", referring to the long gland in this species.

Distribution and habitat

This species is found on the east coast of Tasmania and the Furneaux group of islands. Growing at lower altitudes in coastal areas, river bushland or drier forest. On the islands it grows at higher altitudes with longer leaves and perianth and larger fruit.