Petrophile conifera
{{short description|Species of shrub endemic to Western Australia}}
{{speciesbox
|genus = Petrophile
|species = conifera
|image = Petrophile conifera.jpg
|image_caption = In Sandy Gully
|status =
|status_system =
|authority = Meisn.{{cite web|title=Petrophile conifera|url= https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/59562|publisher=Australian Plant Census|access-date=8 December 2020}}
|synonyms = Petrophila conifera Meisn. orth. var.
}}
Petrophile conifera is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a bushy, much-branched shrub with pinnate, sharply-pointed leaves, and oval heads of hairy, cream-coloured to yellowish white flowers.
Description
Petrophile conifera is a bushy, much-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of {{cvt|0.3–1.5|m}} and has woolly-hairy young branchlets. The leaves are glabrous, {{cvt|40–110|mm}} long on a petiole {{cvt|20–50|mm}} long. They are rigid and needle-like, pinnately divided with sharply-pointed pinnae {{cvt|4–35|mm}} long. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets in sessile, oval heads {{cvt|20–30|mm}} long, with hairy, lance-shaped involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are {{cvt|8–15|mm}} long, hairy, cream-coloured, creamy yellow or yellowish white. Flowering occurs from August to October and the fruit is a nut, fused with others in an oval head {{cvt|10–30|mm}} long.{{cite web |last1=Foreman |first1=David B. |title=Petrophile conifera |url=https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Petrophile%20chrysantha |publisher=Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra |access-date=6 December 2020}}{{FloraBase | name = Petrophile conifera | id = 2290}}
Taxonomy
Petrophile conifera was first formally described in 1855 by Carl Meissner in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany from material collected by James Drummond.{{cite web|title=Petrophile conifera|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/464014 |publisher=APNI|access-date=8 December 2020}}{{cite journal |last1=Meissner |first1=Carl |title=New Proteaceae of Australia |journal=Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Gardens Miscellany |date=1855 |volume=7 |page=67 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/6325#page/69/mode/1up |access-date=8 December 2020}} The specific epithet (conifera) means "cone-bearing".{{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=169 |edition=3rd}}
In 2011, Michael Clyde Hislop and Kelly Anne Shepherd described two subspecies in the journal Nuytsia and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:{{cite journal |last1=Rye |first1=Barbara L. |last2=Hislop |first2=Michael C. |last3=Shepherd |first3=Kelly A. |last4=Hollister |first4=Chris |title=New south-western Australian members of the genus Petrophile (Proteaceae: Petrophileae), including a hybrid |journal=Nuytsia |date=2011 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=46–47 |url=https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/science/nuytsia/570.pdf |access-date=8 December 2020}}
- Petrophile conifera Meisn. subsp. conifera has petioles {{cvt|20–48|mm}} long and involucral bracts {{cvt|0.9–2.2|mm}} wide;{{cite web|title=Petrophile conifera subsp. conifera|url= https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/234379|publisher=Australian Plant Census|access-date=8 December 2020}}
- Petrophile conifera subsp. divaricata B.L.Rye & K.A.Sheph.{{cite web|title=Petrophile conifera subsp. divaricata|url= https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/234387|publisher=Australian Plant Census|access-date=8 December 2020}} has petioles {{cvt|12–24|mm}} long and involucral bracts {{cvt|2.5–4.1|mm}} wide.
Distribution and habitat
This petrophile grows in heath and on sandplains and is common north of Geraldton in the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains biogeographic regions of southwestern Western Australia. Subspecies conifera is found from Eurardy Reserve and Kalbarri National Park to the Chapman River near Geraldton and subsp. divaricata only occurs near Coorow.
Conservation status
Petrophile conifera subsp. conifera is classified as "not threatened"{{FloraBase | name = Petrophile conifera subsp. conifera | id = 40722}} but subsp. divaricata is classified as "Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife,{{FloraBase | name = Petrophile conifera subsp. divaricata | id = 40720}} meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.{{cite web|title=Conservation codes for Western Australian Flora and Fauna|url=https://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/images/documents/plants-animals/threatened-species/Listings/Conservation%20code%20definitions.pdf|publisher=Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife|access-date=8 December 2020}}
References
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Category:Endemic flora of Western Australia
Category:Eudicots of Western Australia