Hakea gibbosa
Common names
downy hakea
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
White
Detailed description
Spreading shrub, hairy in most of its parts. Shoots terete, shaggy villous. Leaves simple, terete, 30~80 x .8~1.5mm, villous at first and some hairs remaining, rigid and spiny. Flowers solitary or few in fascicles. Pedicels 3~5mm long, shaggy villous. Perianth white, sparsely hairy, < pedicel. Ovary stipitate; style glabrous; stigma large, oblique. Fruit 3.7~4.3 x 3~3.5cm, rugose, shortly beaked. Seed 30~33 x 10~14mm (incl. wing), black; wing extending down both margins. (- Webb et. al., 1988)
Similar taxa
Extremely prickly, spreading shrub, hairy in most of its parts. Leaves needle-like and circular in cross section. Has a large woody, beaked seed capsule. Seed winged on both margins. Flowers white, Jun_Aug. can be confused with needlebush (prickly Hakea) - only the shoots of needlebush are hairy.
Habitat
Terrestrial. A coastal and lowland plant. Plant grows in low fertility sites. The plant is found in scrub and forest margin, shrubland and gumlands (Timmins & MacKenzie 1995).
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Proteaceae
Ecology
Flowering
June, July, August
Fruiting
Fruit are always present because follicles persist on trees.
Year naturalised
1937
Origin
NSW
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Tolerances
The plant is intolerant of shade and frost; slightly tolerant of poor drainage and highly tolerant of drought. Adult plants are resistant to grazing. Fire kills plants but viable seed is released from the follicles. Requires low to medium soil fertility (Atkinson 1997).
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial. Germination is poor in unburnt sites, the situation in New Zealand is unknown. The plant produces large amounts of seed. A seed bank is probably not formed (Timmins & MacKenzie 1995). Seed is dispersed by wind and gravity.
Wetland plant indicator status rating
Information derived from the revised national wetland plant list prepared to assist councils in delineating and monitoring wetlands (Clarkson et al., 2021 Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research Contract Report LC3975 for Hawke’s Bay Regional Council). The national plant list categorises plants by the extent to which they are found in wetlands and not ‘drylands’. The indicator status ratings are OBL (obligate wetland), FACW (facultative wetland), FAC (facultative), FACU (facultative upland), and UPL (obligate upland). If you have suggestions for the Wetland Indicator Status Rating, please contact: [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]
FACU: Facultative Upland
Occasionally is a hydrophyte but usually occurs in uplands (non-wetlands).
Other information
Etymology
gibbosa: From the Latin gibbosus ‘hunch-back, gibbous’, refers to an object more swollen in one place than another, with a pouch-like swelling or hump-like.
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
HAKGIB