Petrophile incurvata explained

Petrophile incurvata is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to southwestern Western Australia. It is a shrub with flattened, sometimes pinnately-divided leaves with up to five sharply pointed lobes, and cylindrical to oval heads of silky-hairy, cream-coloured to yellowish-white flowers.

Description

Petrophile incurvata is a much-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of high and has hairy young branchlets that become glabrous as they age. The leaves are flattened, curved upwards, about long and sharply pointed, or pinnately-divided with up to five sharply-pointed lobes. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets in cylindrical to oval heads, sometimes two or three together, up to about long and sessile or on a peduncle about long, with linear involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are long, cream-coloured to yellowish-white and silky-hairy. Flowering mainly occurs in October and the fruit is a nut, fused with others in an oval to cylindrical head long.[1]

Taxonomy

Petrophile incurvata was first formally described in 1912 by William Vincent Fitzgerald in the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign from material collected by Max Koch near Watheroo.[2] [3] The specific epithet (incurvata) refers to the upwardly-curved leaves.[4]

Distribution and habitat

This petrophile grows in shrubland from Lake Moore near Paynes Find to Wubin in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Geraldton Sandplains and Yalgoo biogeographic regions of southwestern Western Australia.

Conservation status

Petrophile incurvata is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Foreman . David B. . Petrophile incurvata . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 14 December 2020.
  2. Web site: Petrophile incurvata. APNI. 14 December 2020.
  3. Fitzgerald . William Vincent . New West Australian Plants. . Journal of Botany, British and Foreign . 1912 . 50 . 22–23 . 14 December 2020.
  4. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 223 . 3rd.