Verticordia spicata is a species of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

 in the Myrtaceae

Myrtaceae

The Myrtaceae or Myrtle family are a family of dicotyledon plants, placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, clove, guava, feijoa, allspice, and eucalyptus belong here. All species are woody, with essential oils, and flower parts in multiples of four or five...

 family. It is a bushy shrub, with white to pink flowers, that occurs in Southwest Australia

Southwest Australia

Southwest Australia is a biodiversity hotspot that includes the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregions of Western Australia. The region has a wet-winter, dry-summer Mediterranean climate, one of five such regions in the world...

. The informal name is the Spiked Featherflower.

The habit of this shrub is upright to spreading, 30 centimetres to 1 metre tall (occasionally 2 metres). The species does not possess 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...

 and has one basal stem. The leaves are ovate, densely arranged, and closely clasp the stem, the margins are narrow, translucent and slightly hairy. The spike-like arrangement of flowers are crowded at the upper part of the branching stems. The sepals are initially white or pale pink, becoming a deep mauve before fading as they age, and deeply divided into 6 - 7 fringed lobes. The pink petals also become deeper in colour, giving a two tone effect as the flowers open, darken and then fade.

The species occurs in the northern Avon Wheatbelt

Avon Wheatbelt

Avon Wheatbelt is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.-Further reading:...

 and Geraldton Sandplains

Geraldton Sandplains

Geraldton Sandplains is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.It has two sub regions: -* Geraldton Hills sub region* Lesuer sub region...

, extending north to the Kalbarri National Park

Kalbarri National Park

Kalbarri National Park is located north of Perth. The major geographical features of the park include the Murchison River gorge which runs for nearly 80 kilometres on the lower reaches of the Murchison River...

.

The first description of the species was by 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 1859.
A revision of the genus Verticordia

Verticordia

Verticordia, a genus of the Myrtaceae family, are woody shrubs with small and exquisite flowers. They are mostly found in Southwest Australia, with several outlier species in northern regions. A revision of the genus in 1991 produced a classification within Verticordia of 3 subgenera, 24 sections,...

by Alex George

Alex George

Alexander Segger George is a Western Australian botanist. He is the authority on the plant genera Banksia and Dryandra...

(1991) placed this species in a section
Verticordia sect. Verticordella

Verticordia sect. Verticordella

Verticordia sect. Verticordella is a section of Verticordia that describes a group of eighteen shrub species. This description was first made in 1857 by Carl Meissner in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, but he did not indicate the reason for his choice of the name. It was...

 of the subgenus Verticordia subg. Eperephes

Verticordia subg. Eperephes

Verticordia subg. Eperephes is a botanical name for a grouping of similar plant species in the genus Verticordia. This subgenus contains six sections, classifying forty four species, of Alex George's infrageneric arrangement...

. George's description of a subspecies Verticordia spicata subsp. squamosa prodeced the autonym Verticordia spicata subsp. spicata. The subspecies is found in small range between Three Springs

Three Springs

Three Springs may refer to:* Three Springs, Pennsylvania* Three Springs, Western Australia...

 and Morawa

Morawa

Morawa may refer to the following towns and villages:* Morawa, Western Australia** Shire of Morawa* Morawa, Lower Silesian Voivodeship * Morawa, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship...

, and is on the Declared Rare and Priority Flora List of the state's Department of Environment and Conservation.