Hakea lehmanniana, commonly known as the blue hakea, is a shrub in the family Proteaceae. It has needle-shaped prickly leaves and blue flowers during winter months. It is endemic to an area in the southern Wheatbelt and Great Southern regions of Western Australia.
Hakea lehmanniana is a prickly, dense shrub typically growing to a height of 0.6to and does not form a lignotuber. It blooms from June to August and produces attractive purple-blue fading to blue or white flowers in dense clusters in upper leaf axils. The leaves are glabrous, terete, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long by NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 thick and ending in a sharp point at the apex. The fruit are 3 dimensional, NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 long by NaNsigfig=1NaNsigfig=1 wide with a very rough prickly surface a unique feature which identifies this species.[1] [2]
Blue hakea grows from Pingelly ranging south to Albany and east to Ravensthorpe. Grows in heath or shrubland on gravelly-loam, sand or sand over laterite in sun or semi-shade. An adaptable species frost and drought tolerant and may be used as a ground cover and wildlife habitat.[1]
Hakea lehmanniana was first formally described in 1845 by Swiss botanist Carl Meisner and the description was published in Plantae Preissianae.[3] [4] The species was named in honour of the German botanist, Johann Georg Christian Lehmann.[1]
Hakea lehmanniana is classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government.