Hakea arborescens

Hakea arborescens, commonly known as the common hakea or the yellow hakea, is a shrub or tree of the genus Hakea native to parts of northern Australia.

Description

The tall shrub or tree typically grows to a height of. The bark on the trunk and larger branches is rough, fissured and grey in colour. The sessile evergreen leaves have a linear to narrowly oblanceolate or narrowly elliptic shape and are in length and wide. It blooms from January to July and produce yellow-cream flowers. Each axillary unbranched inflorescence is long and clustered in heads. It has a free, silvery to rusty coloured perianth and a conical pollen presenter. The thick woody beaked fruit that form after flowering are an ellipsoidal shape in length and across. The fruits contain two obovoid shaped black seeds that are in length with a membranous yellow wing.

Taxonomy

Hakea arborescens was first formally described by botanist Robert Brown in 1810 as part of the work On the natural order of plants called Proteaceae as published in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin meaning "becoming tree-like" referring to the habit of the shrub.

Distribution

Hakea arborescens is endemic to the top end in the Northern Territory, the Kimberley region of Western Australia and northern Queensland. It is often found among coastal dunes, inland on soils that are alkaline, along creek banks or in low-lying areas such as swamps. Hakea arborescens is often found growing over and around areas of sandstone, quartzite and limestone and usually part of monsoon forest or Eucalyptus woodland communities.