Conospermum triplinervium

Conospermum triplinervium is a tree or shrub that typically grows to a height of {{cvt|0.5–4.5|m}} and has grey bark with paler patches. The leaves are lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, to elliptic, {{cvt|30–140|mm}} long, {{cvt|3–13|mm}} wide and grabrous. The flowers are borne in several spike-like panicles on a peduncle {{cvt|180–390|mm}} long with egg-shaped, hairy bracteoles {{cvt|2.0–2.6|mm}} long and {{cvt|2–3|mm}} wide. The flowers are greyish white, forming a tube {{cvt|2.5–4.2|mm}} long, the lobes narrowly oblong, {{cvt|0.7–1|mm}} long and {{cvt|0.2–0.4|mm}} wide. Flowering occurs in March and from September to November, and the fruit is a nut {{cvt|2.3–2.7|mm}} long and about {{cvt|2.5|mm}} wide with tan, cream-coloured or orange, woolly hairs.{{cite web |last1=Bennett |first1=Eleanor M. |title=Conospermum triplinervium |url=https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Conospermum%20triplinervium |publisher=Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra. |access-date=12 November 2024}}

This species has forms with broad leaves and several habits from weeping to strong upright stems.

Conospermum triplinervium was first formally described in 1830 by the botanist Robert Brown in Supplementum primum prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae from specimens collected near King George Sound by William Baxter.{{cite web |title=Conospermum triplinervium |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/rest/instance/apni/490655|publisher=Australian Plant Name Index |access-date=12 November 2024}}{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Robert |title=Supplementum primum Prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae |date=1830 |publisher=R. Taylor |location=London |page=11 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/77294#page/525/mode/1up |access-date=12 November 2024}} The specific epithet (triplinervium) means 'triple-nerved' referring to the leaves.{{cite book |last1=Sharr |first1=Francis Aubi |last2=George |first2=Alex |title=Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings |date=2019 |publisher=Four Gables Press |location=Kardinya, WA |isbn=9780958034180 |page=328 |edition=3rd}}

Tree smokebush is found on sand plains and in winter wet depressions along the coast in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia where it grows in sandy soils over laterite.

The plant is suitable for the production of cut flowers with a reasonably high yield. It is also suitable as animal fodder, the 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia’ records that common names included "native orange" and "orange thorn", and that "Baron Mueller suggests that these plants be tried on the worst desert country, as all kinds of pasture animals browse with avidity on the long, tender, and downy flower-stalks and spikes, without touching the foliage, thus not destroying the plant by close cropping."{{cite book | author=J. H. Maiden | year=1889 | title=The useful native plants of Australia : Including Tasmania | publisher= Turner and Henderson, Sydney | url=https://primo-slnsw.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=SLNSW_ALMA21105097830002626&context=L&vid=SLNSW&search_scope=EEA&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US}}

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triplinervium

Category:Endemic flora of Western Australia

Category:Eudicots of Western Australia

Category:Plants described in 1830

Category:Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)