Hakea mitchellii

Hakea mitchellii, commonly known as desert hakea, is a shrub species in the family Proteaceae.

Description

Hakea mitchellii is a dense rounded medium to large shrub between high and wide and does not form a lignotuber. Leaves vary from terete, linear to ovate are long and wide. Profuse showy white or cream flowers appear in racemes in the leaf axils between October and January in the species' native range. Ellipsoidal to ovoid shaped fruit long by wide tapering to a small beak.

Taxonomy and naming

The species was first formally described in 1856 by Swiss botanist Carl Meissner and the description was published in Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. The type specimen was collected near Pyramid Hill during Thomas Livingston Mitchell's 1836 expedition. Hakea mitchellii was named after Mitchell to honour the collector of the species.

Distribution and habitat

Desert hakea grows in mallee-heath vegetation on calcareous sandy soil. Mainly a South Australian species occurring on Eyre, Yorke and Fleurieu Peninsulas, Kangaroo Island and south of the Murray River to Naracoorte, extending into western Victoria.