''Hakea cygnus'', commonly known as the swan hakea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae. It usually grows as a dense shrub with creamy-white upright flowers appearing from July to August. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Description

''Hakea cygnus'' is an upright non- lignotuberous shrub growing to high. The smaller branches are densely covered in flattened silky hairs at flowering time. The leaves are variable, they may be flat and thick, narrowly egg-shaped widest in the middle, more or less needle-shaped or triangular in cross-section. Leaves are smooth long and wide with prominent veins on the leaf margin. The upper side of the leaves has 1-3 obscure longitudinal veins, the underside veins barely visible. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

consists of 6-14 creamy-white flowers in

racemes A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the shoo ...

, appearing upright and singly in leaf axils. The cream-white

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

s are smooth, rarely with soft short flattened hairs. The

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower. It is a structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepal ...

a cream-white and the

style Style, or styles may refer to: Film and television * ''Style'' (2001 film), a Hindi film starring Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil Khan and Shilpi Mudgal * ''Style'' (2002 film), a Tamil drama film * ''Style'' (2004 film), a Burmese film * '' ...

is long. The oval to egg-shaped fruit are long and wide growing at an angle on a short thick stalk. The fruit is barely beaked but has a short prominent point. The seed are pale brown with darker streaks, are broadly egg-shaped to almost triangular or circular and long. Flowers appear either from May to June or August to September.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1987 by Byron Barnard Lamont who gave it the name ''Hakea cygna'' and published the description in the ''

Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society The ''Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society'' is a scientific journal publishing original papers relating to the taxonomy of all plant groups and fungi, including anatomy, biosystematics, cytology, ecology, ethnobotany, electron microscopy, ...

''. In 2019, Alex George noted that under Article 23.5 of the ''

International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN or ICNafp) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all tho ...

'', the

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

for this species should be ''(cygnus)'', meaning "swan". In the same edition of the ''Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society'', Byron Lamont described two subspecies of ''Hakea cygnus'', and the names are accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Sys ...

. *''Hakea cygnus'' subsp. ''cygnus'' has flat, thick, linear to narrowly egg-shaped leaves wide. *''Hakea cygnus'' subsp. ''needlei'' has variable leaves either narrowly linear, needle-shaped or triangular in cross-section and wide. Restricted to an area south of

Lake King Lake King is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, from Perth along State Route 40 between Ravensthorpe and Newdegate. As of 2016, the town had a population of 95. The 2011 census recorded both the population of the t ...

Distribution and habitat

''Hakea cygnus'' is widely distributed from

Geraldton Geraldton (Wajarri language, Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu language, Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West (Western Australia), Mid West region of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. As of the , Geraldt ...

to Ravensthorpe in the south-east and east to

Cape Arid Cape Arid National Park is a List of national parks of Australia, national park located in Western Australia, southeast of Perth. The park is situated east of Esperance, Western Australia, Esperance and lies on the shore of the South coast of ...

. It grows in heath or mallee-heath on gravelly loams, sandy loams, white yellow or grey sand, often over

laterite Laterite is a soil type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolo ...

. * Subspecies ''cygnus'' is widespread from Eneabba in the north to the wheatbelt region of Western Australia to Merredin and south to Esperance. * Subspecies ''needlei'' has a restricted distribution with scattered populations just south of Lake King and in the Pallarup Nature Reserve.

Conservation status

''Hakea cygnus'' subsp. ''needlei'' is classified as " Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and en ...

, meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hakea cygnus Eudicots of Western Australia cygnus Plants described in 1987