Hakea leucoptera, commonly known as silver needlewood, needle hakea, pin bush or water tree[2] and as booldoobah in the Koori language, is a shrub or small tree with rigid, cylindrical, sharply pointed leaves and white, cream-coloured or yellow flowers in late spring and early summer.

[2] Showy creamy white flowers are formed on short hairless stalks about 4 mm (0.2 in) long in clusters of 20 or more in axillary racemes.

[2] Fruit comprises a woody follicle about 20–30 mm (0.8–1 in) long which is swollen at the base but tapers to a point.

The capsules open in halves longitudinally revealing 2 seeds that have an opaque wing on one side only.

[6][7][8] Hakea leucoptera was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown and the description was published in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.

[11]: 640 In 1996 William Baker described two subspecies of H. leucoptera -[12] Hakea leucoptera was treated as part of the Sericea group, a predominantly eastern states group characterised by their simple terete leaves, few-flowered inflorescences, hairy pedicels and solitary, prominently woody fruits, these often markedly verrucose or pusticulate and usually with horns.

Other members of the group are H. actites, H. constablei, H. decurrens, H. gibbosa, H. kippistiana, H. lissosperma, H. macraeana, H. macrorrhyncha, H. ochroptera, H. sericea and H. tephrosperma, predominantly from the eastern states of Australia.

[4] A sweet nutritious drink was made by dipping heavily laden blossom into a cup of water or by sucking the flowers directly.