Petrophile trifurcata

Petrophile trifurcata is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with three-lobed, needle-shaped, sharply-pointed leaves, and spherical heads of hairy, yellow flowers.

Description
Petrophile trifurcata is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 35–65 cm and has hairy young branchlets that become glabrous as they age. The leaves are 10–16 mm long and needle-shaped, mostly with three sharply-pointed lobes up to 6 mm long. The flowers are arranged at the ends of branchlets in sessile, spherical heads 8–10 mm in diameter, with egg-shaped involucral bracts at the base. The flowers are about 10 mm long, yellow and hairy. Flowering has been observed in September and the fruit is a nut, fused with others in a spherical head about 12 mm in diameter.

Taxonomy
Petrophile trifurcata was first formally described in 1995 by Donald Bruce Foreman in Flora of Australia from material collected near Wongan Hills in 1983. The specific epithet (trifurcata) means "three-forked", referring to the three-pronged leaves.

Distribution and habitat
This petrophile is only known from a few locations near Wongan Hills and between Watheroo and Coorow in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains biogeographic regions, growing in sandy soil with Actinostrobus arenarius.

Conservation status
This petrophile is classified as "Priority Two" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations.