Banksia formosa explained

Banksia formosa, commonly known as showy dryandra, 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 but does not form a lignotuber. It has hairy branchlets and leaves that are broadly linear in outline, pinnatipartite, long and wide on a petiole 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 long at the base of the head. The flowers have a golden orange perianth long and a yellow pistil long. Flowering occurs in May or from September to December and the fruit is a glabrous follicle long. Each head may have up to thirteen follicles.[1]

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.[2] [3]

In 2007, Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele transferred all the dryandras to the genus Banksia and this species became Banksia formosa.[4] [5] The specific epithet (formosa) is a Latin word meaning "beautiful on account of form".[6]

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.

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.[7]

References

Notes and References

  1. Book: George . Alex S. . Flora of Australia . 17B . 1999 . Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra . Canberra . 293–294 . 28 April 2020.
  2. Web site: Dryandra formosa. APNI. 28 April 2020.
  3. Brown . Robert . On the Proteaceae of Jussieu . Transactions of the Linnean Society of London . 1810 . 10 . 1 . 213 . 28 April 2020.
  4. Web site: Banksia formosa. APNI. 28 April 2020.
  5. Mast. Austin R.. Thiele. Kevin. The transfer of Dryandra R.Br. to Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae). Australian Systematic Botany. 2013. 20. 1. 63–71. 10.1071/SB06016.
  6. Book: Francis Aubie Sharr . Francis Aubie Sharr . Western Australian Plant Names and their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, Western Australia . 9780958034180 . 201.
  7. 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 . 1–16 . 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01559.x . 6.