Hakea strumosa
Hakea strumosa is a shrub in the family "Proteacea" endemic to an area in the Wheatbelt, Great Southern and the Goldfields-Esperance regions of Western Australia. A dense, very prickly shrub with a profusion of small, deep pink or red flowers in spring. Description. "Hakea strumosa" is a rounded, dense shrub typically growing to a height of and wide and does not form a lignotuber. The branchlets and young leaves are smooth or has dense, flattened, rusty-coloured silky hairs. The leaves are stiff, needle-shaped long and wide ending in a long sharp point long. The inflorescence  usually consists of 4 and occasionally 6-10 small, deep pink or red mildly scented flowers in axillary clusters along the upright branchlets. The individual flowers have overlapping bracts long and covered in coarse, rough hairs. The pedicel long and smooth, the pistil long. The red and yellow perianth is long, smooth and covered in a bluish-green powdery film. The large fruit are smooth with wrinkles, pear-shaped long and wide, ending in two small horns long. Flowering occurs from September to October. Taxonomy and naming. "Hakea strumosa" was first formally described by Carl Meisner in 1855 and published  the description in "Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis". Named from the Latin "strumosus" - a reference to the thick stalk supporting the fruit. Distribution and habitat. This species is found growing in low heath on sand, sometimes over laterite from Tammin in the central wheatbelt, ranging south to Bremer Bay and Esperance. Conservation status. "Hakea strumosa" is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.