Petrophile squamata

Petrophile squamata is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub usually with deeply divided, three-lobed and sharply-pointed leaves, and oval heads of hairy yellow or creamy-yellow flowers.

Description

Petrophile squamata is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of. The leaves are up to long on a petiole up to long, and deeply divided with three sharply-pointed lobes that often themselves have three to five lobes and are long. The flowers are arranged in leaf axils in sessile, oval heads long, with small deciduous involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are long, yellow or creamy-yellow and hairy. Flowering mainly occurs from July to December and the fruit is a nut, fused with others in a more or less oval head about long.

Taxonomy

Petrophile squamata was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. The specific epithet means "scaly", referring to the involucral bracts.

Distribution and habitat

Petrophile squamata is a common and widespread species growing in sandy heath, shrubland or woodland between Perth and Israelite Bay.

Conservation status

This petrophile is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.