Hakea chordophylla, commonly known as bootlace oak, bootlace tree, corkwood, or bull oak, is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

  of shrub or small tree in the family Proteaceae

Proteaceae

Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises about 80 genera with about 1600 species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae they make up the order Proteales. Well known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea,...

 found in central and northern Australia.

The species was first formally described by Victorian Government Botanist Ferdinand von Mueller

Ferdinand von Mueller

Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, KCMG was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist.-Early life:...

 in 1857, from a collection in Sturt's Creek in the Northern Territory. Its name chordophylla is derived from Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 chordo "cord" and phyllon "leaf". It belongs to a group of related species known as the corkbarks, or lorea group, within the genus Hakea, most of which are found across Australia's arid interior.

Hakea chordophylla grows as a gnarled shrub or tree 2 to 6 metres (7 to 20 ft) high. The trunk bears thick corklike bark with many furrows, and has a woody base known as a lignotuber

Lignotuber

A lignotuber is a starchy swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem by fire. The crown contains buds from which new stems may sprout, and a sufficient store of nutrients to support a period of growth in the absence of...

. The long thin leaves are tough and thick. They measure from 22 to 42 cm (9–16 in) long and 1.6 to 2.9 mm wide. Measuring 7 to 13 cm (3–5 in) in length, the inflorescences contain anywhere from 35 to 70 individual small flowers and are various shades of yellow to green. Flowering is from June to September, and is followed by the production of beaked valved woody seed pods measuring 2.6–4 cm (1–1.6 in) in length, each producing two winged seeds.

Hakea chordophylla ranges across the interior of central and northern Australia, from western Queensland though to northern Western Australia, to south of Karratha. It grows in spinifex grassland on stony or red-brown sandy soil.

It is a slow growing but attractive plant in cultivation, its leaves and bark a feature. Full sun and good drainage are helpful.