Petrophile striata explained

Petrophile striata is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with pinnate or bipinnate, striated, sharply-pointed leaves, and oval heads of silky-hairy yellow, creamy-yellow or cream-coloured flowers.

Description

Petrophile striata is a sometimes prostrate shrub that typically grows to a height of and has branchlets and leaves that are hairy when young but become glabrous with age. The leaves are pinnate or bipinnate, long on a petiole long and striated, the pinnae up to long, wide and sharply-pointed. The flowers are arranged in leaf axils in sessile, sometimes clustered, oval heads long, with overlapping egg-shaped involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are long, yellow, creamy-yellow or cream-coloured and silky-hairy. Flowering occurs from August to December and the fruit is a nut, fused with others in an oval head up to in diameter.[1]

Taxonomy

Petrophile striata was first formally described in 1830 by Robert Brown in the Supplementum to his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen from material collected by Charles Fraser near the Swan River in 1826.[2] [3] The specific epithet (striata) refers to the leaves.[4]

Distribution and habitat

Petrophile striata grows in woodland and shrubland in sandy-clay-gravel soils over laterite or granite and is found from Eneabba to Wagin as well as on the Darling Range and nearby coastal plain.

Conservation status

This petrophile 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 striata . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 8 January 2021.
  2. Web site: Petrophile striata. APNI. 8 January 2021.
  3. Book: Brown. Robert. Supplementum primum prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae . 1830. London. 6 . 8 January 2021.
  4. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 315 . 3rd.