Petrophile stricta is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, spreading shrub with needle-shaped, sharply-pointed leaves, and oval heads of hairy, pink to cream-coloured flowers.

Petrophile stricta
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Proteales
Family:	Proteaceae
Genus:	Petrophile
Species:	P. stricta
Binomial name
Petrophile stricta C.A.Gardner ex Foreman[1]

Description

Petrophile stricta is an erect, spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.6–1.6 m (2 ft 0 in – 5 ft 3 in) and has glabrous branchlets and leaves. The leaves are needle-shaped, sharply pointed and 45–135 mm (1.8–5.3 in) long. The flowers are arranged at the ends of branchlets in oval heads up to about 20 mm (0.79 in) in diameter on a peduncle 6–12 mm (0.24–0.47 in) long, with deciduous, linear involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are 10–12 mm (0.39–0.47 in) long, pink to cream-coloured and hairy. Flowering occurs from October to December and the fruit is a nut, fused with others in an oval head 20–47 mm (0.79–1.85 in) long.[2][3][4]

Taxonomy

Petrophile stricta was first formally described in 1990 by Donald Bruce Foreman in the journal Muelleria from and unpublished description by Charles Gardner.[4][5] The specific epithet (stricta) means "straight, erect or rigid".[6]

Distribution and habitat

This petrophile grows in sandy shrubland and scrub in sandy-gravelly soils over laterite on sandplains, ridges and low hills in the drier, inland parts in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie and Mallee biogeographic regions in the south-west of Western Australia.[2][3]

Conservation status

Petrophile stricta is classified as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife.[3]

References