Petrophile wonganensis explained

Petrophile wonganensis is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a dense shrub with blunt, needle-shaped leaves, and more or less spherical heads of hairy, yellow flowers.

Description

Petrophile wonganensis is a dense shrub that typically grows to a height of and has hairy young branchlets and leaves that become glabrous as they age. The leaves are blunt, needle-shaped, long. The flowers are arranged at the ends of branchlets in sessile, more or less spherical heads up to about in diameter, with egg-shaped or elliptic involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are about long, yellow and hairy. Flowering occurs from August to January and the fruit is a nut, fused with others in a more or less spherical head in diameter.[1]

Taxonomy

Petrophile wonganensis was first formally described in 1995 by Donald Bruce Foreman in Flora of Australia from material collected by James Henderson Ross near Wongan Hills in 1984.[2] The specific epithet (wonganensis) refers to the type location.[3]

Distribution and habitat

This petrophile mainly occurs near Wongan Hills and towards Cowcowing, in the Avon Wheatbelt biogeographic region. It grows in heath and shrubland in sand or sandy loam.

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 wonganensis . Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra . 14 January 2021.
  2. Web site: Petrophile wonganensis. APNI. 14 January 2021.
  3. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 340 . 3rd.