Banksia bella

Wongan dryandra
Banksia bella in Kings Park Botanic Garden

Priority Four — Rare Taxa (DEC)
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. bella
Binomial name
Banksia bella
Synonyms[1]
  • Dryandra pulchella Meisn.
  • Josephia pulchella (Meisn.) Kuntze

Banksia bella, commonly known as the Wongan dryandra,[2] is a species of dense shrub that is endemic to a restricted area of Western Australia. It has narrow, deeply serrated leaves covered with white hairs on the lower surface, heads of yellow flowers and few follicles in the fruiting head.

Description

Banksia bella is a dense, sprawling shrub that typically grows to a height of 1.5–2 m (4 ft 11 in – 6 ft 7 in) but does not form a lignotuber. Its stems are hairy at first but become glabrous as they age. The leaves are crowded on side branches, linear in shape, 60–200 mm (2.4–7.9 in) long, 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) wide in outline, covered with white hairs on the lower surface and pinnatisect with about 35 triangular lobes about 2 mm (0.079 in) long on each side. The flowers are arranged in sessile heads of between thirty and fifty, each flower yellowish with a perianth about 24 mm (0.94 in) long. Flowering occurs in October and the fruit is a more or less spherical or broadly egg-shaped follicle 6–8 mm (0.24–0.31 in) long. There are usually only up to two follices in each head.[2][3]

Taxonomy and naming

The Wongan dryandra was first formally described in 1856 by Carl Meissner who gave it the name Dryandra pulchella in the journal Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.[4][5] In 2007 Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele transferred all the dryandras to the genus Banksia but as there was already a plant named Banksia pulchella (teasel banksia), Mast and Thiele chose the specific epithet "bella".[6] Pulchella is from a Latin word meaning "beautiful little" and bella is from a Latin word meaning "beautiful".[7][8]

Distribution and habitat

The Wongan dryandra is only found near Wongan Hills where it grows in tall shrubland and low woodland.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b "Banksia bella". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Banksia bella". 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. p. 284. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  4. ^ Meissner, Carl (1856). "Proteaceae". Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. 14 (1): 473. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
  5. ^ "Dryandra pulchella". APNI. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  6. ^ "Banksia bella". APNI. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  7. ^ Mast, Austin R.; Thiele, Kevin (2007). "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. pp. 145, 286. ISBN 9780958034180.
  • Cavanagh, Tony; Pieroni, Margaret (2006). The Dryandras. Melbourne: Australian Plants Society (SGAP Victoria); Perth: Wildflower Society of Western Australia. ISBN 1-876473-54-1.
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