Tree or shrub, 1-6 m high, resprouting from base; bark brown-black, furrowed. Branchlets densely appressed- to woolly-tomentose, finally glabrescent. Leaves: petiole c. 1-5 mm long; lamina narrowly linear, flat to concave above, straight to variously curved, thick, 5-35 cm long, 3-15 mm wide, narrowly attenuate, acute to obtuse, densely appressed-tomentose, glabrescent. Inflorescence with c. 40-200 flowers; rachis (30-) 60-200 mm long, densely appressed to woolly cream- or white-tomentose, rarely glandular-pubescent throughout, with similar indumentum on pedicels and perianth. Flowers cream to green-yellow; pedicels 4-10 mm long. Perianth 7-9 mm long. Pistil 18-26 (-30) mm long; style straight or curved; pollen presenter oblique. Fruit 2.2-4 cm long; valves 1.2-1.7 cm wide; beak curved. Seed occupying c. half valve, 1.8-3.7 cm long, 0.9-1.4 cm wide; wing c. 1/2-2/3 down one side only.

Flowers late May-Aug. (-Oct. in the Kimberley).

Occurs in semi-arid to arid northern W.A. and N.T. and western Qld.

Found in red sandplain, often with hummock grasses, sometimes also in woodland, less commonly in heavier soil.

W.A.: Fitzroy Crossing, Mrs Guppy Q6 (PERTH). N.T.: near (S of) Newcastle Waters, S.T.Blake 16019 (BRI); 69 km SW of Barrow Creek township, M.Lazarides 5803 (AD, BRI, DNA, NSW). Qld: 29 km E of Urandangie, L.Pedley 2024 (BRI).

Cygnet Bay, Point Cunningham, NW Australia [W.A.], 4th Voy., 9 July 1822, A.Cunningham 83 ; syn: BM, K.

Distinctive within the group for its flat leaves. Occasional very narrow-leaved specimens occur, which were given the name H. morrisoniana . There is no basis for considering these specimens as a separate taxon. Developing fruits are glabrous after anthesis but, by the time they are over about 1 cm long, are often densely appressed-tomentose with apparently simple eglandular hairs. Rarely some specimens (e.g. Blake 16019 and Guppy Q6 ) have the rachis, pedicels and outside of the perianth densely glandular-pubescent, the hairs simple and sometimes mixed with 2-armed appressed eglandular hairs. The developing ovaries may also be glandular-pubescent.

W.R.Elliot & D.L.Jones, Encycl. Austral. Pl. 5: 215 (1990).

Data derived from Flora of Australia Volumes 16 (1995), 17A (2000) and 17B (1999), products of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia