Conospermum hookeri
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Conospermum hookeri | |
|---|---|
 | |
| In Freycinet National Park | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Proteales |
| Family: | Proteaceae |
| Genus: | Conospermum |
| Species: | C. hookeri |
| Binomial name | |
| Conospermum hookeri | |
Conospermum hookeri, commonly known as Tasmanian smokebush,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to Tasmania. It is a shrub with many branches, spatula-shaped or linear leaves, panicles of spikes of white, tube-shaped flowers and reddish brown nuts covered with silky fawn-coloured hairs.
Conospermum hookeri is an erect, slender, much-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of 1.0–1.5 m (3 ft 3 in – 4 ft 11 in). Its leaves are crowded, greyish-green, spatula-shaped to linear, 19–32 mm (0.75–1.26 in) long, 1–35 mm (0.039–1.378 in) wide and point upwards. The flowers are borne in panicles that end in a spike with up to 20 flowers on a peduncle 20–25 mm (0.79–0.98 in) long and covered with silky white hairs. There are hairy bracteoles 3.5–4.0 mm (0.14–0.16 in) long and 2.5–3.0 mm (0.098–0.118 in) wide. The flowers are white, densely woolly-hairy and form a tube 3.25–4 mm (0.128–0.157 in) long. The upper lip of the perianth is 2.0–2.5 mm (0.079–0.098 in) long, 1.5–2.0 mm (0.059–0.079 in) wide, curved backwards and covered with white hairs. The lower lip joined for 1.25–1.50 mm (0.049–0.059 in) with lobes 1.0–1.4 mm (0.039–0.055 in) long and 0.5–0.8 mm (0.020–0.031 in) wide and covered with white and red hairs. Flowering usually occurs from September to November, and the fruit is a reddish-brown nut about 2 mm (0.079 in) long and 2.0–2.25 mm (0.079–0.089 in) wide and covered with silky fawn-coloured hairs.[2][3][4]
Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 1856 by Karl Meissner who gave it the name Conospermum taxifolium var. ? hookeri in de Candolle's Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.[5][6] In 1995, Eleanor Marion Bennett raised the variety to species status as Conospermum hookeri in the Flora of Australia.[3][7] The specific epithet (hookeri) honours William Jackson Hooker.[8]
