Isopogon spathulatus

Isopogon spathulatus is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to south-western Western Australia. It is a shrub with linear to egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and more or less spherical heads of hairy pink flowers.

Isopogon spathulatus
In the Australian National Botanic Gardens
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Order:	Proteales
Family:	Proteaceae
Genus:	Isopogon
Species:	I. spathulatus
Binomial name
Isopogon spathulatus R.Br.[1]
Occurrence data from Australasian Virtual Herbarium
Synonyms[1]
Isopogon buxifolius var. linearis (R.Br.) Benth. Isopogon buxifolius var. spathulatus Benth. Isopogon spathulatus var. linearis R.Br. Isopogon spathulatus R.Br. var. spathulatus

Description

Isopogon spathulatus is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.7–2 m (2 ft 4 in – 6 ft 7 in) and has hairy young branchlets. The leaves are linear to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, 10–23 mm (0.39–0.91 in) long 1.5–7 mm (0.059–0.276 in) wide with a small point on the end. The flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets in sessile, spherical heads 15–25 mm (0.59–0.98 in) in diameter with hairy, egg-shaped involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are pink, hairy, 14–20 mm (0.55–0.79 in) long and are present in most months followed by fruit that is a hairy nut, fused in a spherical head 15–20 mm (0.59–0.79 in) in diameter.^[2][3][4]

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described in 1830 by Robert Brown in the Supplementum to his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen, based on material collected by William Baxter at King George's Sound.^[5][6]

In 1870, George Bentham reduced I. spathulatus to a variety of Isopogon buxifolius in Flora of Australia,^[7][8] but in 2015, Hislop and Rye reinstated I. spathulatus in the journal Nuytsia.^[2][9]

The specific epithet (spathulatus) means "spoon-shaped".^[10]

Distribution and habitat

This isopogon grows in heath or shrubland in swampy or winter-wet areas between Ruabon, Collie and the Stirling Range in the south-west of Western Australia.^[2]

Conservation status

Isopogon spathulatus is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.^[4]