Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Hakea lissosperma
Common name
Needle Bush, Mountain Needlewood
Family
Proteaceae
Where found
Woodland and rocky sites, usually above 1200 m altitude. ACT, the mountains to the west, Kosciuszko National Park, and nearby. Ranges and eastern tablelands between Tallaganda State Forest (SW of Braidwood) and Wadbilliga National Park.
Notes
Shrub to 5 m high. Leaves with a sharp mucro about 1 mm long. Branchlets silky, appearing silvery, when young. Leaves alternating up the stems, cylindrical, 3.5–13 cm long, 1–2 mm in diameter, rigid, erect to spreading, densely appressed-silky with white hairs, or rarely tomentose with brownish hairs, quickly becoming hairless; tips pointed outward, with a mucro 1-1.5 mm long. No groove on the lower surface of the leaves. Flowers long and spindly, white to cream, with 4 'petals' free from each other when the flowers are fully open, hairless. Gynoecium 8–10.5 mm long. Flower in individual clusters of 3-8 flowers, forming a continuous or discontinuous sleeve along the stems. Flowering: late spring-summer. 'Nuts' almost globular, 20–53 mm long, 15–20 mm wide or more, wrinkled or covered with discrete warts, with a short beak and minute horns. Seeds with one wing.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
Rare Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Hakea~lissosperma (accessed 8 April 2021)
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