Hakea verrucosa is a flowering plant in the family Proteaceae that is endemic to south-west Western Australia. It has large white, deep pink or red pendulous flowers with stiff needle-shaped leaves.
Hakea verrucosa is a spreading prickly shrub growing to NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 high and does not form a lignotuber. The branchlets are covered mostly in densely matted, short, rusty hairs. The green terete leaves are about long and wide, ending in a sharp point long. The leaves are smooth and have a tendency to point in one direction from the branchlet. The pendant inflorescence consists of 7-14 white, pink to red flowers in a showy profusion in axillary clusters, or on old wood. Each inflorescence is held on a stalk about long. The pedicel long, the perianth long, initially a cream-white and aging to pink and the pistil long. Flowering occurs between May and August and the fruit are obliquely egg-shaped NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long and NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with blister-like protuberances, tapering to two horns long.[1] [2]
The species was first formally described in 1865 by Victorian Government Botanist Ferdinand von Mueller and published in the fifth volume of his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae.[3] Named from the Latin verrucosus - warty, referring to the seed surface.[1]
Hakea verrucosa grows in heath and low woodland on sandy-loam, near creeks, clay and gravel ranging from Jerramungup along the coast to Esperance.
A frost-tolerant species that requires a well-drained site. Due to its dense prickly growth habit a good wildlife habitat and low windbreak.[1]
Hakea verrucosa is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government. Department of Parks and Wildlife.