Hakea drupacea

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

Common name:         Sweet-scented Hakea

Conservation status: Least concern

• Hakea drupacea is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks Wildlife

Etymology:   

• The genus is named after Baron Christian Ludwig von Hake, an 18th-century German patron of botany

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Flowers:                  

• The inflorescence are short racemes of sweetly scented white or cream flowers tipped with pink or brownish pollen

• The pedicel is 4–8 mm long and the perianth 4–5 mm long and smooth

• The style is smooth and 4–6 mm long

• The flowers are abundant and appear in the outer leaf axils from March to June

Fruit:                         

• The woody egg-shaped fruit are 20–25 mm long and 15–19 mm wide

• The fruit surface is smooth with a few black pustules, ending with two prominent horns 2–4 mm long

Leaves:         

• The smooth needle-shaped leaves grow alternately, are 4–11 cm long and 1–2 mm wide ending in a sharp point

• The leaf may divide into 2-8 segments

Stem & branches: 

• Smaller branches are hairy

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A tree or shrub 

• An upright rounded shrub growing to 1–4 m tall

Habitat:   

Distribution:                  

• Native to south west Western Australia

• Sweet-scented hakea occurs mainly as a coastal species, between Albany and east of Cape Arid and on the Recherche Archipelago Islands

• The species is naturalised in South Africa (where it is known as soethakea, meaning "sweet hakea")

• New Zealand and coastal Victoria. Grows in open heath or low shrubland areas with granite hillsides occasionally quartzite areas or coastal limestone cliffs

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy and naming

  • Hakea drupacea was first formally described by Karl Friedrich von Gaertner in 1807 and given the name Conchium drupaceum

  • It was also formerly known as Hakea suaveolens

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakea_drupacea (2023)