Banksia

Banksia montana, copyright E. Holland & E. Hickman.

Belongs within: Grevilleoideae.
Contains: Dryandra.

Banksia is a genus of trees and shrubs found in Australia, with a single species, B. dentata, extending into New Guinea. The highest diversity of species is found in the south-west of Western Australia, with the majority of species found in sandy or gravelly soils. Banksia flowers are often borne in conical inflorescences. Dehiscent fruits embedded in the inflorescence can have a mouth-like appearance, inspiring the 'bad banksia men' of Australian children's author May Gibbs. Species with flat inflorescences have historically been separated as the genus Dryandra but recent molecular phylogenetic analyses have found Banksia excluding Dryandra to be paraphyletic (Mast et al. 2005).

Characteristics (from Foreman 1995): Twigs pubescent or glabrous. Leaves whorled, scattered or spirally arranged, coriaceous, entire, dentate, lobed or pinnatisect. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, cylindrical or spherical. Flowers bisexual, sessile, in pairs subtended by one common bract and two floral bracts. Perianth linear, regular to slightly irregular; limb and upper portions of perianth claws separating at anthesis. Anthers all perfect, sessile in concave like segments; connective slightly prolonged. Hypogynous glands 4, alternate with tepals, small and membranous. Ovary sessile, very small, 1-locular; ovules 2, attached laterally; style straight, bowed to slightly curved below pollen presenter, often hard and wiry; pollen presenter erect, small, conical or turbinate; stigma mostly terminal or oblique. Infructescence woody, consisting of few to many woody follicles; bracts persistent, becoming woody. Seeds often 2, compressed, with terminal membranous wing.

Banksia [Banksiinae]
    |--Phanerostomata MJH05
    |    |--+--B. (ser. Grandes) grandis MJH05
    |    |  `--+--B. tricuspis MJH05
    |    |     `--+--B. (ser. Dryandroideae) dryandroides MJH05
    |    |        `--B. pulchella MJH05
    |    `--+--B. ericifolia MJH05
    |       |--B. (ser. Salicinae) oblongifolia MJH05
    |       `--+--B. (ser. Quercinae) quercifolia MJH05
    |          `--+--B. brownii MJH05
    |             `--B. nutans MJH05
    |                  |--B. n. var. nutans MJH05
    |                  `--B. n. var. cernuella MJH05
    `--Cryptostomata MJH05
         |  i. s.: B. baxteri MJH05
         |         B. coccinea MJH05
         |         B. speciosa MJH05
         |--+--+--*B. serrata MJH05
         |  |  `--B. aemula MJH05
         |  `--+--+--B. (ser. Ochraceae) benthamiana MJH05
         |     |  `--+--B. baueri MJH05
         |     |     `--B. lullfitzii MJH05
         |     `--+--B. (ser. Cyrtostylis) media MJH05
         |        `--+--B. (ser. Tetragonae) elderiana MJH05
         |           `--B. (ser. Prostratae) petiolaris MJH05
         `--+--+--B. attenuata MJH05
            |  |--B. elegans MJH05
            |  `--B. subg. Isostylis MJH05
            |       |--B. cuneata MJH05
            |       |--B. ilicifolia MJH05
            |       `--B. oligantha MJH05
            |--+--B. candolleana MJH05
            |  `--+--B. (ser. Lindleyana) lindleyana MJH05
            |     |--B. menziesii MJH05
            |     `--+--B. ashbyi MJH05
            |        `--B. sceptrum MJH05
            `--Dryandra MJH05

Banksia incertae sedis:
  B. archaeocarpa McNamara & Scott 1983 DK10
  B. audax Gi04
  B. australis TW07
  B. campbelli Ettingshausen 1886 F71
  B. dentata Linnaeus 1781 F95
  B. heliantha GML13
  B. integrifolia NC91
  B. laevigata Gi04
    |--B. l. ssp. laevigata Gi04
    `--B. l. ssp. fuscolutea Gi04
  B. latifolia M87
  B. lawsoni Ettingshausen 1886 F71
  B. littoralis JK08
  B. marginata SN08
  B. meisneri GK00
  B. myricaefolia Ettingshausen 1886 F71
  B. paludosa C70
  B. prionotes Gr04
  B. repens MJH05
  B. saxicola MJH05
  B. sphaerocarpa Gi04
    |--B. s. var. sphaerocarpa Gi04
    `--B. s. var. dolichostyla Gi04
  B. spinulosa WB-P93
    |--B. s. var. spinulosa WB-P93
    `--B. s. var. collina WB-P93
  B. violacea Gi04
  B. ser. Plumosae GML13
    |--B. montana GML13
    |--B. plumosa GML13
    `--B. pseudoplumosa GML13

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[C70] Common, I. F. B. 1970. Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers pp. 765–866. Melbourne University Press.

[DK10] Darragh, T. A., & G. W. Kendrick. 2010. Eocene molluscs from the Merlinleigh Sandstone, Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 26 (1): 23–41.

[F71] Fletcher, H. O. 1971. Catalogue of type specimens of fossils in the Australian Museum, Sydney. Australian Museum Memoir 13: 1–167.

[F95] Foreman, D. B. 1995. Proteaceae. In: Conn, B. J. (ed.) Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea vol. 3 pp. 221–270. Melbourne University Press: Carlton (Australia).

[Gi04] Gibson, N. 2004. Flora and vegetation of the Eastern Goldfields Ranges: part 7. Middle and South Ironcap, Digger Rock and Hatter Hill. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (2): 49–62.

[GK00] Gibson, N., & G. J. Keighery. 2000. Flora and vegetation of the Byenup-Muir reserve system, south-west Western Australia. CALMScience 3 (3): 323–402.

[Gr04] Groom, P. K. 2004. Seedling growth and physiological responses of two sandplain Banksia species differing in flood tolerance. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (3): 115–121.

[GML13] Gullan, P. J., M. L. Moir & M. C. Leng. 2013. A new species of mealybug (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) from critically endangered Banksia montana in Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 28 (1): 13–20.

[JK08] Johnstone, R. E., & T. Kirkby. 2008. Distribution, status, social organisation, movements and conservation of Baudin's cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus baudinii) in south-west Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 25 (1): 107–118.

[MJH95] Mast, A. R., E. H. Jones & S. P. Havery. 2005. An assessment of old and new DNA sequence evidence for the paraphyly of Banksia with respect to Dryandra (Proteaceae). Australian Systematic Botany 18 (1): 75–88.

[M87] Mueller, F. von. 1887. Some hitherto undescribed plants of New South Wales. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 1 (4): 1105–1110.

[NC91] Nielsen, E. S., & I. F. B. Common. 1991. Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers 2^nd ed. vol. 2 pp. 817–915. Melbourne University Press: Carlton (Victoria).

[SN08] Schmidt, E. R., & T. R. New. 2008. The Psocoptera (Insecta) of Tasmania, Australia. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 65: 71–152.

[TW07] Thongphak, D., & Q. Wang. 2007. Taxonomic revision of the longicorn beetle genus Uracanthus Hope 1833 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae: Uracanthini) from Australia. Zootaxa 1569: 1–139.

[WB-P93] Walter, D. E., & V. M. Behan-Pelletier. 1993. Systematics and ecology of Adhaesozetes polyphyllos sp.nov. (Acari: Oribatida: Licneremaeoidea), a leaf-inhabiting mite from Australian rainforests. Canadian Journal of Zoology 71: 1024–1040.

Last updated: 23 March 2021.