Hakea fraseri

Hakea fraseri
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Proteales
Family:	Proteaceae
Genus:	Hakea
Species:	H. fraseri
Binomial name
Hakea fraseri R.Br.[2]

Hakea fraseri, the corkwood oak,^[3] is a species of shrub or small tree in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to northern New South Wales. It has furrowed bark, pendulous foliage and creamy-white flowers in spring.

Hakea fraseri is a shrub or small tree growing to 1–6 m (3 ft 3 in – 19 ft 8 in) high with multiple stems, dark grey rough bark and does not form a lignotuber. The branchlets are a whitish colour, covered with flattened, soft hairs, new shoots glossy rusty coloured hairs over glossy white hairs. The leaves are simple, varying length with a weeping habit, 11–30 cm (4.3–11.8 in) long 0.9–1.4 mm (0.035–0.055 in) wide, more or less smooth and ending with hook. The inflorescence consists of 25-50 cream-white flowers borne in leaf axils on a stalk 9–25 mm (0.35–0.98 in) long that is covered with reddish-brown, short, matted hairs over whitish flattened hairs. The pedicel 3.5–8 mm (0.14–0.31 in) long, thickly covered with flattened hairs that extend onto the cream-white perianth when in bud, the pistil 17–26 mm (0.67–1.02 in) long. The fruit is narrowly egg-shaped, 30–40 mm (1.2–1.6 in) long, 11–17 mm (0.43–0.67 in) wide and a long obscure beak. Flowering occurs in spring.^[3][4]

This species was first formally described in 1830 Robert Brown and the description was published in Supplementum primum prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae.^[5][6] The specific epithet (fraseri) honours Charles Fraser the first colonial botanist and Superintendent of the New South Wales botanic gardens.^[7]

Corkwood oak is a rare species in New South Wales confined to the New England Tablelands below Wollomombi, Dangar, Tia and Apsley Falls on steep slopes and vertical rock situations in gorges.^[4]