Banksia aquilonia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

iBanksia aquilonia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae
Genus: Banksia
Species: B. aquilonia
Binomial name
Banksia aquilonia
(A.S.George) A.S.George

Banksia aquilonia is a species of tall shrub or tree in the plant genus Banksia.

Contents

[edit] Description

B. aquilonia grows as a tall shrub or small tree up to 8 metres high. It has hard, fissured, grey bark, and elliptic leaves without serrated margins. Flowers occur in Banksia's characteristic "flower spike", an inflorescence made up of hundreds of pairs of flowers densely packed in a spiral around a woody axis. B. aquilonia's flower spike is a pale yellow colour, roughly cylindrical, 6 to 10 centimetres high. It flowers from March to June.[1]

Though the inflorescences are similar to B. integrifolia, the leaves are marked in their differences - the midrip on the leaves' undersides is distinctively covered in short reddish brown hairs and the leaves are spirally arranged rather than in whorls as in all B, integrifolia subspecies. It was these differences that George felt were distinctive enough for it to be considered a separate species to B. integrifolia[2].

[edit] Taxonomy

See also: Taxonomy of Banksia

B. aquilonia was first described by Alex George in 1981 as a variety of Banksia integrifolia (Coast Banksia)[3]. It was promoted to subspecies rank by Thiele and Ladiges in 1994, then was promoted to species rank by George in 1996[2]. Thus its full name is "Banksia aquilonia (A.S.George) A.S.George". It is placed in subgenus Banksia, section Banksia and series Salicinae. Its placement within Banksia may be summarised as follows:[1]

Genus Banksia
Subgenus Banksia
Section Banksia
Series Salicinae
Banksia dentata - Banksia aquilonia - Banksia integrifolia - Banksia plagiocarpa - Banksia oblongifolia - Banksia robur - Banksia conferta - Banksia paludosa - Banksia marginata - Banksia canei - Banksia saxicola
Series Grandes
Series Banksia
Series Crocinae
Series Prostratae
Series Cyrtostylis
Series Tetragonae
Series Bauerinae
Series Quercinae
Section Coccinea
Section Oncostylis
Subgenus Isostylis

[edit] Distribution and habitat

B. aquilonia occurs in coastal areas of northern Queensland from the Mount Finnigan National Park to the Paluma Ranges, in woodland and forest in granitic sand.[1]


[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c George, Alex S.. (1999). "Banksia". Flora of Australia Volume 17B: Proteaceae 3: Hakea to Dryandra: 175–251. Ed. Wilson, Annette. CSIRO Publishing / Australian Biological Resources Study. ISBN 0643064540.
  2. ^ a b George, A. S. (1996). "Notes on Banksia L. f.". Nuytsia 11 (1): 21–24.
  3. ^ George, A. S. (1981). "The Genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)". Nuytsia 3 (3): 239–473.

[edit] External links

Wikispecies has information related to: