| General Description | The Hakea laurina is a fast-growing tree. The tree branches contain a red hue, while the trunk is typically grey. The flower that resembles a pin-cushion due to its red and white colour. Its blue-green leaves are long and can range to be about 15 cm long. |
| ID Characteristic | This evergreen woody tree contains large, linear-ovate, flat, leathery leaves that are blue-green. The flowers are a red-magenta that resembles a pin-cushion with white-cream-coloured carpels that look like the needles. The bark is grey, smooth, and silky. |
| Shape | Its shape is a large upright bushy shrub or small tree. The foliage is domed and has a habit to spread out. The branches are pendulous, and branchlets are glabrous by the flowers. The mature size of this plant is 4 – 5 m and can take up to 5 years to fully grow. |
| Landscape | The Pin-Cushion plant has been used in multiple types of hedges and screenings, such as informal hedging. Many of these trees can be found gardens of all sorts, such as flower gardens, Mediterranean garden, Coastal gardens, tree suburban gardens, and native gardens. Hakea laurina specimens have very shallow root systems, so they can be planted close to buildings and used as a shading street plant in countries such as Italy and America. The pin-cushion plant is also used to assist in controlling coil erosion and windbreaks. Some other places to find this plant is on soccer fields, wildlife habitats, and playgrounds. |
| Propagation | When propagating a Hakea laurina, a branch cutting and a seed from the fruit can be used. The best time to start propagation is in the summer while the plant's root system is semi-ripe with bottom heat. Due to the Hakea laurina being shallow rooted, the chances of it actually propagating are very slim and can be ineffective. During forest fires or very hot temperatures, the fruit will crack open and provide a seed that is stimulated to start germination. During germination they prefer moist soil and can take a few months to germinate. |
| Cultivation | This shrub is a fast-growing plant, drought tolerant, and also low maintenance. Hakea laurina prefers to grow in moist, well-drained soil and does not like to be water logged. The soil it typically grows in is chalk, sand, clay, and loam. The soil pH levels it prefers to grow in are Acid (Ac pH) and Neutral (N pH), although they can tolerate most soil conditions. Hakea laurina can tolerate light frost and high winds, but not strong winds. The climate zones they’re typically in are warm, cool, and Mediterranean. |
| Pests | As a member of the Proteaceae family, the Pin-Cushion plant does not like phosphorus fertilizer. Root-rot fungus caused by water logging and poor soil conditions, this will cause the leaf foliage and branches to die back and cause the tree to start leaning. Although this is not a pest or a disease, but due to the shallow root systems wind conditions can be affected. Leaf mould, weed invasions, and specimens along roads can be threatened to be cleared for maintenance. This plant is also deer tolerant. |
| Notable Specimens | Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan, 362 Narellan Rd, Mount Annan NSW 2567, Australia. Lake Magenta Nature Reserve, Pingrup WA 6343, Australia. Fitzgerald River National Park, Western Australia, Australia.
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| Habitat | The habitat in which the Hakea laurina came from is often sandy plains, sandy clay areas, but most plants are located in southern Australia near coastal locations. There are also some Hakea laurina in south Australia, on Kangaroo Island and on Mount Lofty Ranges where it is in gritty, sandy, and clay soil types. Can grow in warm and cool temperate, and Mediterranean climates. |
| Bark/Stem Description | The Pin-Cushion plant bark is smooth, silky, and grey. The way to determine the age of the branch is the colour. The older branches are greyer, whilst the younger branches are a grey-red hue. |
| Flower/Leaf Bud Description | The flower buds on the Hakea laurina flower in late spring to summer, multiple clusters of flower buds start to form. The flower buds are enclosed in scale-like bracts. In autumn they are covered in white fine hairs with ornamental scales. Due to the white appearance of the flower bud, it resembles an egg shape. The scales are conical shaped. The buds start to appear fat and pointed around the late fall to early winter. The flower bud sizes and leaf buds of the Hakea laurina have not been recorded. |
| Leaf Description | The Pin-Cushion plant has alternating flat linear-ovate leaves, that are a blue-green colour similar to eucalyptus. Its leaves are 15 – 21 cm long, 3 cm wide, and the petiole is 1 – 2 cm long. The shape of the leaf is lanceolate-acute and curls at the tip, with striking parallel venation and an attenuate at the base of the leaves. The leaves also tend to curl and become wavy. |
| Flower Description | The flower of the Hakea laurina flowers are in full bloom in mid-summer. Proteaceae flowers have 4 tepals. It is round and dense, and 5 cm in diameter. The perianths are red-magenta in colour and are about 1 cm long (the cushion), and the carpels are white-cream colour that are about 2 cm (the pins), giving it that pin-cushion look. There are 4 stamens in the perianth, and it contains 1 carpel. Coming from the perianth contains, 120-190 white-cream spines are erect. The flowers attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and birds, specifically honeyeaters, due to the faint honey-scented blooms. |
| Fruit Description | The fruit of the Hakea laurina is thick with woody follicles. Its colour resembles bark. The clusters range from 1 – 10 per axil. The size is about 2 – 4 cm long, 1.5 – 2.5 cm wide. Its is wide, egg-shaped, and smooth with a short beak at the end. Its seed is ovate and is 1 – 2.5 cm long, and its colour is a blue-green colour with a black-brown round base. The wing-ovate shape seed is also flat. When heated up, the fruit cracks open providing the seed. |
| Colour Description | Hakea laurina contains red-magenta flowers with white-cream-coloured spines that pop out, giving the look of a pin-cushion and an explosion. The leaves are a blue-green colour. The branches of the Hakea laurina have a red hue whilst the bark/stem is grey the older it becomes. The look remains the same throughout the seasons. |
| Texture Description | The texture of the bark of the Hakea laurina is smooth and silky. The leaves are leathery, thick, and smooth. The fruit is woody-like, thick, and resembles closely to wood. The texture does not change through out the seasons. |