Conospermum acerosum

Needle-leaved Smokebush
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
Order:	Proteales
Family:	Proteaceae
Genus:	Conospermum
Species:	C. acerosum
Binomial name
Conospermum acerosum Lindl.

Conospermum acerosum, commonly known as Needle-leaved Smokebush,^[1] is a shrub endemic to Western Australia

Description

It grows as a spindly shrub, either erect or sprawling, from 0.3 to 1.7 metres high. It has slender, needle like leaves up to ten centimetres long, and dense panicles of white, red or pink flowers.^[1][2]

Taxonomy

It was first published in John Lindley's 1839 A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony, based on specimens collected by James Drummond. Lindley referred to it as a "strange species" that "might be mistaken for a Colletia."^[3] It has since had a thoroughly uncomplicated taxonomic history, with no nomenclatural or taxonomic synonyms published.^[4] In 1995, however, as part of her treatment of Conospermum for the Flora of Australia series of monographs, Eleanor Bennett published a subspecies, geologist and archaeologist William Dugald Campbell; thus the autonym edit] Distribution and habitat

It occurs in sandy soil, often over laterite, from the Murchison River south to Cape Leeuwin; thus it occurs mainly within the Geraldton Sandplains and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions, with some populations in the Avon Wheatbelt and Jarrah Forest regions. Its Flora of Australia entry, published in 1995, states that "there is also one doubtful collection from Norseman", but this is not (or is no longer) recorded within the West Australian Herbarium's FloraBase database.^[1][2]

Ecology

It is not considered threatened.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Conospermum acerosum Lindl.". FloraBase. Department of Environment and Conservation, Government of Western Australia. http://florabase.dec.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/1857. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Conospermum acerosum Lindl.". Flora of Australia Online. Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australian Government. http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/online-resources/flora/stddisplay.xsql?pnid=44908. 
3. ^ Lindley, John (1839). "A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony". Appendix to the first twenty-three volumes of Edwards's Botanical Register. London: James Ridgeway. 
4. ^ "Conospermum acerosum Lindl.". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government. http://www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/apni?taxon_id=21553. 
5. ^ "Conospermum acerosum subsp. hirsutum E.M.Benn.". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government. http://www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/apni?taxon_id=203790. 
6. ^ "Conospermum acerosum Lindl. subsp. acerosum". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government. http://www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/apni?taxon_id=203691.