Hakea oldfieldii

Hakea oldfieldii is a shrub of the family Proteaceae and is endemic to South West region of Western Australia. It has small white or cream-yellow flowers in profusion in spring.

Description

Hakea oldfieldii is an open, straggling shrub with upright branches and growing to a height of. The smooth, needle-shaped leaves are more or less long and wide and grow alternately. The rigid dark green leaves may be curving or straight and end in a sharp point. The branchlets are smooth and covered with a bluish green powdery film. The inflorescence consists of 8–20 white or cream-yellow flowers in a raceme in the leaf axils on a smooth stalk long. The flowers appear in profusion and have an unpleasant scent. The over-lapping flower bracts are long, the pedicel long. The smooth, cream-white perianth long and the pistil long. The fruit are egg-shaped almost rounded, long, wide with an uneven surface, occasionally warty ending with two prominent horns about long. Flowering occurs from August to October.

Taxonomy and naming

Hakea oldfieldii was first formally described by George Bentham in 1870 and published the description in Flora Australiensis. The specific epithet oldfieldii honours Augustus Frederick Oldfield who first discovered the species.

Distribution and habitat

This species is found in the south-west from Bunbury and Busselton to the Stirling Range growing in well-drained rocky loam or clay over ironstone in winter-wet sites.

Conservation status

Hakea oldfieldii is classified as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.