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Service Notice

The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system, WAHerb, and DBCA’s flora taxonomic names application, WACensus, have been set to read-only mode since 1 October 2025. Recent taxonomic changes are not currently being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or the census. Due to the rapidly approaching holiday season and associated agency and facility soft closures, along with the substantial work involved in data mapping, cleaning, and verification, the migration to the new collection management software is not expected to occur before 1 March 2026, when a further update will be provided. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

The notice period started at 9:45 am on Friday, 12 December 2025 +08:00 and will end at 12:00 pm on Monday, 2 March 2026 +08:00.

Macropidia fuliginosa (Hook.) Druce
Black Kangaroo Paw

Reference
Rep.Bot.Exch.Club Brit.Isles 4:634 (1917)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Native to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Rhizomatous, perennial, herb, 0.2-1.8 m high. Fl. green & black, Aug to Dec. White sand, lateritic gravel, laterite.

Grazyna Paczkowska, Descriptive Catalogue, 21 June 1994
Image

Scientific Description

Leaves flat, 315-460 mm long, 10-15 mm wide; bristles or hairs on the leaf margin absent; hairs on the surface of the leaf absent (leaf surfaces glabrous). Scape present, hairy, 550-820 mm long. Inflorescence subtended by a bract 22-35 mm long, with several flowers; floral bracts 9-11 mm long; pedicels present, 2-3.5 mm long; flowers 50-68 mm long. Perianth hairy, bilaterally symmetric, distinctly bicoloured, green and black, with six more or less equal tepals, the inner segments 27-37 mm long. Stamens six, in three levels, in pairs; filaments 27-33 mm long; anther 4.5-5.7 mm long, with an appendage. Style 40-55 mm long. Flowers in August, September, October, November or December. Occurs in the Geraldton Sandplains, Swan Coastal Plain and Jarrah Forest IBRA bioregion(s), of the South-west Botanical Province.

C. Hollister and K.R. Thiele, 18 January 2020

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain.
IBRA Subregions
Dandaragan Plateau, Geraldton Hills, Lesueur Sandplain, Northern Jarrah Forest, Perth.
IMCRA Regions
Central West Coast.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Carnamah, Chittering, Coorow, Dandaragan, Gingin, Irwin, Swan, Three Springs, Victoria Plains.