Red Pokers

~ Hakea bucculenta ~

PROTEACEAE

The glorious grevillea-like blossoms of Red Pokers start out green and mature into a tangerine dream, adored by local honeyeaters. Red Pokers has been placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as near-threatened, as its decreasing populations face threats from agricultural land clearing, pollution, invasive weeds, phosphate from agricultural run-off, damage from road maintenance and, of course, the drying landscape. These elements tower in the face of our native flora as we know how intricate and vulnerable our ecosystems can be. The IUCN Red List is an incredible resource that keeps us up to date with flora and fauna populations and specifies the environmental stresses for each species, so we can be better informed to make changes.

WHERE TO LOOK

Hakea bucculenta is endemic to the Western Australian sandplains from Shark Bay down to Mingenew in Mallee-heath (semi-arid areas dominated by Mallee Eucalypts) and sandy heathlands.

Locations → ACT: Australian National Botanic Gardens; WA: Hollywood Reserve and Bush Food Garden, and Kings Park and Botanic Garden.

FEATURES

Red Pokers is a shrub growing 2–5m with long 15–40cm needle-like leaves. Its rod-like inflorescences are about 15cm long and contain around 250 to 450 orangey-red flowers. These are arranged along a 13cm smooth spike with the flowers resembling those of Grevilleas. The fruit is an interesting egg shape 2.5cm in size and is borne on the branches in clusters of three to 16.

FLOWERING SEASON

Winter and spring → Red Pokers can be seen from May to November with a peak around September.

PLANTING

Propagate by seed, with germination occurring in about three to four weeks. The seed pods stay on the branches for the life of the plant or until fire. Proteaceae respond to a pre-treatment of smoke or a soak in warm water overnight – this speeds up the germination process. Water well while establishing and then rainfall should be sufficient. They are not a fan of humidity or excessive watering, so plant in sandy, well-draining soil in a warm sunny spot.