About Petrophile diversifolia R.Br.
Petrophile diversifolia R.Br. is a shrub that typically reaches 0.7 to 3 meters (2 feet 4 inches to 9 feet 10 inches) in height. It has hairy branchlets that become hairless as they mature. Its young leaves are soft, hairy, fern-like, and often reddish in color. Mature adult leaves are hairless, and can be pinnate, bipinnate, or tripinnate. Adult leaves are 30 to 110 millimeters (1.2 to 4.3 inches) long, growing from a petiole 6 to 26 millimeters (0.24 to 1.02 inches) long, and usually have 35 to 55 sharply-pointed pinnae. Flowers are arranged in oval heads roughly 20 millimeters (0.79 inches) long, borne on a peduncle 10 to 20 millimeters (0.39 to 0.79 inches) long, with egg-shaped involucral bracts at the base of each head. Individual flowers are 10 to 12 millimeters (0.39 to 0.47 inches) long, hairy, and creamy-white or white in color. Flowering takes place from September to December. The fruit is a nut that remains fused with other nuts in an oval to cylindrical head that can grow up to 30 millimeters (1.2 inches) long. This species grows in sandy scrub, forest, and shrubland. It occurs between the Blackwood River and the Stirling Range, and also near Bremer Bay, in the Esperance Plains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain, and Warren biogeographical regions of southwestern Western Australia.
