Hakea cygna, commonly known as the swan hakea, is usually a dense shrub endemic to Western Australia with creamy-white upright flowers appearing from July to August.
Hakea cygna is an upright non-lignotuberous shrub growing to NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 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 NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 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 consists of 6-14 creamy-white flowers in racemes, appearing upright and singly in leaf axils. The cream-white pedicels are smooth, rarely with soft short flattened hairs. The perianth a cream-white and the style is NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long. The oval to egg-shaped fruit are NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 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 NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long. Flowers appear either from May to June or August to September.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Hakea cygna was first formally described by Byron Barnard Lamont in 1987 and published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. The specific epithet (cygna) is derived from the Latin word cygnus meaning "swan",[1] [6] referring to the shape of the fruit believed to resemble that of a swan.Two subspecies of Hakea cygna have been recognised.
Hakea cygna is widely distributed from Geraldton to Ravensthorpe in the south-east and east to Cape Arid. It grows in heath or mallee-heath on gravelly loams, sandy loams, white yellow or grey sand, often over laterite.[2]
Hakea cygna subsp. needlei is classified as "Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.[7]