Kingdom Plantae Family Proteaceae Genus Hakea Rank Species | Order Proteales Subfamily Grevilleoideae Scientific name Hakea salicifolia | |
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Similar Hakea, Hakea sericea, Hakea gibbosa, Hakea dactyloides, Hippophae salicifolia | ||
Hakea salicifolia (HAK-ee-uh sal-iss-ih-FOH-lee-uh) commonly known as the willow-leaved hakea, is indigenous to Eastern Australia and is found in New South Wales and Queensland.
H. salicifolia is a fast-growing, upright shrub that can grow up to 5m tall. The flat and elliptical leaves are widest in the middle and can grow up to 12 cm long. New growth on the Willow-leaved Hakea is rose coloured. During the spring the Willow-leaved Hakea has pale yellow to white flowers which appear in small dense clusters among the leaves.
Willow-leaved Hakea is an invasive plant species in New Zealand and is listed by the New Zealand Department of Conservation as one of about 300 environmental weeds.
The species was formally described in 1890 by French botanist Étienne Pierre Ventenat, based on a specimen cultivated at the garden of Jacques Philippe Martin Cels which was believed to have origins in the Botany Bay area. Ventenat gave it the name Embrothium salicifolium. English botanist Brian Burtt transferred the species to the genus Hakea in 1941.
