Showy dryandra
Flowers and foliage
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae
Genus: Banksia
Subgenus: Banksia subg. Banksia
Series: Banksia ser. Dryandra
Species:
B. formosa
Binomial name
Banksia formosa
Synonyms[1]
  • Dryandra formosa R.Br.
  • Josephia formosa (R.Br.) Poir.
Old flower head with open follicles

Banksia formosa, commonly known as showy dryandra,[2] is a species of shrub that is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has pinnatipartite leaves with up to forty triangular lobes on each side, up to more than two hundred, conspicuous golden orange flowers and up to sixteen egg-shaped follicles in each head.

Description

Banksia formosa is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of 1–3 m (3 ft 3 in – 9 ft 10 in) but does not form a lignotuber. It has hairy branchlets and leaves that are broadly linear in outline, pinnatipartite, 70–160 mm (2.8–6.3 in) long and 6–11 mm (0.24–0.43 in) wide on a petiole 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) long. There are between thirty and forty-five more or less triangular lobes on each side of the leaves. The flowers are borne on a head containing between 100 and 220 flowers in each head. There are oblong to egg-shaped involucral bracts 16–20 mm (0.63–0.79 in) long at the base of the head. The flowers have a golden orange perianth 25–39 mm (0.98–1.54 in) long and a yellow pistil 29–55 mm (1.1–2.2 in) long. Flowering occurs in May or from September to December and the fruit is a glabrous follicle 11–13 mm (0.43–0.51 in) long. Each head may have up to thirteen follicles.[2][3]

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown who gave it the name Dryandra formosa and published the description in the Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.[4][5]

In 2007, Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele transferred all the dryandras to the genus Banksia and this species became Banksia formosa.[6][7] The specific epithet (formosa) is a Latin word meaning "beautiful on account of form".[8]

Distribution and habitat

Banksia formosa grows in kwongan and open forest between Busselton and Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve and is common near Albany and in the Stirling Range.[2][3]

Ecology

An assessment of the potential impact of climate change on this species found that its range is likely to contract by between 50% and 80% by 2080, depending on the severity of the change.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b "Banksia formosa". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Banksia formosa". FloraBase. Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
  3. ^ a b George, Alex S. (1999). Flora of Australia (PDF). Vol. 17B. Canberra: Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. pp. 293–294. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  4. ^ "Dryandra formosa". APNI. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  5. ^ Brown, Robert (1810). "On the Proteaceae of Jussieu". Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 10 (1): 213. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  6. ^ "Banksia formosa". APNI. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  7. ^ Mast, Austin R.; Thiele, Kevin (2013). "The transfer of Dryandra R.Br. to Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)". Australian Systematic Botany. 20 (1): 63–71. doi:10.1071/SB06016.
  8. ^ Francis Aubie Sharr (2019). Western Australian Plant Names and their Meanings. Kardinya, Western Australia: Four Gables Press. p. 201. ISBN 9780958034180.
  9. ^ Fitzpatrick, Matthew C.; Gove, Aaron D.; Sanders, Nathan J.; Dunn, Robert R. (2008). "Climate change, plant migration, and range collapse in a global biodiversity hotspot: the Banksia (Proteaceae) of Western Australia". Global Change Biology. 14 (6): 1–16. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01559.x.
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