Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A large Australian genus of plants, belonging to the follicular section of the Proteaceæ, tribe Grevilleeæ, and distinguished from
Grevillea by its axillary inflorescence and samaroid seeds.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun Australian shrubs and small trees with evergreen usually spiny leaves and dense clusters of showy flowers
Etymologies
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Examples
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I then changed to the north-west again, through a scrubby country — mulga, acacia, hakea, salt bush, and numerous others, with a plentiful supply of grass.
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We have not seen a drop of water on the surface; the ground evidently absorbs all that falls; the scrub is principally the mulga and hakea bushes and acacia, with a few other small bushes, but very little salt bush.
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Kasrils, whose department operates the programme, said the intensity of the fires correlated strongly with the presence of invading aliens such as wattles, gums and hakea from Australia, and pines from Europe and North America.
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The projects were formed to control alien vegetation such as wattles, pines and hakea in bushes, dams and rivers.
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Here again the stone seems to be the centre of the common life of the _hakea_ flower.
The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) Robert Vane Russell 1894
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In the case of the _hakea_ flower totem they go to a stone lying beneath an old tree, and one of the members lets his blood flow on to the stone until it is covered, while the others sing a song inciting the _hakea_ tree to flower much and to the blossoms to be full of honey.
The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) Robert Vane Russell 1894
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The blood is said to represent a drink prepared from the _hakea_ flowers, but probably it was originally meant to quicken the stone with the blood of a member of the totem, that is its own blood or life, in order that it might produce abundance of flowers.
The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) Robert Vane Russell 1894
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All was one impenetrable desert; ... the vegetation on this part of the country was reduced to a few stunted gums, hakea bushes, and Triodia (spinifex), the whole extremely barren in appearance ...
Spinifex and Sand David Wynford Carnegie 1885
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(Eucalyptus dumosa) mulga, prickly bushes (hakea), some grevillea-trees, and a few oaks (casuarinas).
Australia Twice Traversed, Illustrated, Ernest Giles 1866
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We have not seen a drop of water on the surface; the ground evidently absorbs all that falls; the scrub is principally the mulga and hakea bushes and acacia, with a few other small bushes, but very little salt bush.
Explorations in Australia The Journals of John McDouall Stuart John McDouall Stuart 1840
chained_bear commented on the word hakea
"In class that afternoon he sat with the cockatoo who, having entered an alien universe, was ministered to as a royal guest, was brought gifts of hakea pods and pine cones, was permitted to screech and shit, and was thus given the illusion that it was a god, being waited on by superstitious savages."
—Peter Carey, Illywhacker, 305
(For more on the cockatoo, see casuarina.)
April 16, 2009