Hakea lissosperma
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Hakea lissosperma' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- Hakea acicularis var. lissosperma (R.Br.) Benth.
- Hakea sericea var. lissosperma (R.Br.) Ewart
In cultivation this species makes an erect-branched shrub 8 to 10 ft high, but in the wild may be tree-like and up to 20 ft high; branches stout. Young shoots, leaves, and flower-stalks covered at first with silky hairs, later glabrous. Leaves simple, erect, 11⁄2 to 5 in. long, circular in cross-section, very rigid, pungently pointed at the apex, narrowed at the base. Flowers white or creamy white, in axillary almost sessile clusters of six or more. Individual flower-buds tubular, bent and swollen at the apex. Perianth-segments narrowly lanceolate, free to the base when the flower is fully expanded. Fruits about 1 in. long, roundish, woody, wrinkled or warted, shortly beaked or unbeaked. Seeds smooth on both sides.
Native of Tasmania, where it ascends to an altitude of 4,000 ft, and of Victoria and New South Wales. Probably the plants now in cultivation derive from the seeds collected by H. F. Comber during his expedition to Tasmania in 1929–30. It is an interesting shrub, much resembling a conifer when seen from a distance, but the flowers make little display. It is hardy from mid-Sussex westward in a sunny sheltered position and occasionally fruits. There is a fine group at Nymans in Sussex, growing in an exposed position; they are seedlings of the plants raised originally from the seeds sent by Comber.
It should be noted that some plants grown under the name of H. acicularis (a synonym of H. sericea) may in fact be H. lissosperma.
