Banksia victoriae

taxobox
name = Woolly Orange Banksia
regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Eudicots
ordo = Proteales
familia = Proteaceae
genus = "Banksia"
species = "B. victoriae"
binomial = "Banksia victoriae"
binomial_authority = Meisn.|

"Banksia victoriae", commonly known as Woolly Orange Banksia,cite web | url = http://www.anbg.gov.au/common.names/ | title = Australian Plant Common Names Database | accessdate = 2007-05-27] is a species of large shrub or small tree in the plant genus "Banksia". It occurs in Western Australia between Northampton, Western Australia and Kalbarri, with the occasional plant further north as far as Zuytdorp Nature Reserve.

Description

"B. victoriae" generally grows as a tall shrub, but older plants sometimes attain a tree habit, growing as high as seven metres. It has smooth grey back and densely hairy stems. Leaves are 15 to 30 centimetres long and 2.5 to four centimetres wide, with deep trangular lobes and woolly surfaces. Flowers occur in typical "Banksia" "flower spikes", inflorescences made up of hundreds of pairs of flowers densely packed in a spiral about a woody axis. "B. victoriae"'s inflorescence is orange, seven to twelve centimetres long. After flowering, up to 30 follicles develop in the flower spike. These are usually concealed by withered flower parts, which persist on the spike for a long time.The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)] cite encyclopedia | author = George, A. S. | year = 1999 | title = Banksia | editor = Wilson, Annette (ed.) | encyclopedia = Flora of Australia | volume = 17B: Proteaceae 3: Hakea to Dryandra | pages = 175–251 | publisher = CSIRO Publishing / Australian Biological Resources Study | id = ISBN 0-643-06454-0]

Taxonomy

Discovery and naming

[
Curtis's Botanical Magazine", published in 1857.] The first known specimens of "B. victoriae" may have been seeds sent to England in the early 1830s. These seeds were distributed to a number of gardens, and by 1835 three gardens had successfully raised plants to flowering: the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the garden of George Percy, 5th Duke of Northumberland, and that of Henry Berens of Sidcup. In that year, the second of these was painted by Sarah Drake, and included as Plate 1728 in "Edwards's Botanical Register". In the accompanying text, John Lindley identified the plant as "B. speciosa" (Showy Banksia), but commented "We found neither the whiteness of the under side of the leaves, nor the faintness of the veins, which are supposed to be characteristic of the species".cite journal | first = John | last = Lindley | year = 1835 | journal = Edwards's Botanical Register | volume = 20 | title = 1728. Banksia speciosa] Doubts were raised about the identity of the species in 1857, when Walter Hood Fitch painted "B. victoriae" based on a cut flower provided by David Moore of Glasnevin Botanical Garden. Fitch's painting appeared as Plate 4906 in Volume 82 of "Curtis's Botanical Magazine", and was accompanied by the text: "There can, I think, be no doubt of its being the same with the "B. speciosa" above quoted in the Bot. Reg., but not the "B. speciosa" of Br. and Hook., Bot. Mag. t. 3052; and equally certain does it appear to be the "B. Victoriæ" of Meisner."cite journal | first = William Jackson | last = Hooker | authorlink = William Jackson Hooker | year = 1857 | journal = Curtis's Botanical Magazine | volume = 82 | title = 4906. Banksia Victoriæ] Thus it was implied that 1835 plate was in fact "B. victoriae", a suggestion that was supported by George Bentham in his treatment of the species in his 1870 "Flora Australiensis".cite encyclopedia | author = Bentham, George | year = 1870 | title = Banksia | encyclopedia = Flora Australiensis | volume = Volume 5: Myoporineae to Proteaceae | pages = 541–562 | location = London | publisher = L. Reeve & Co.]

Despite this possible early collection, it would not be until 1850 or 1851 that James Drummond collected the plant material upon which would be based the formal publication of "B. victoriae". He collected the species only once, probably from near the Hutt River, and his material was sent to England as part of "Drummond's sixth collection". In 1855 Carl Meissner published a formal description of the species in "Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Gardens Miscellany", referring to it as "a noble species, very near "B. speciosa", but easily distinguished by the segments of the leaves being larger, flat, not white underneath, nor scrobiculate above, etc.". He named it in honour of Queen Victoria; thus the full name for the species is "Banksia victoriae" Meisn.APNI | name = "Banksia victoriae" Meisn. | id = 55728] He appears to have been unaware of the 1835 plate that would later be attributed to "B. victoriae".

Infrageneric placement

Although Meissner did not proffer an infrageneric placement for "B. victoriae" in his 1855 publication of the species, he did so the following year in his chapter on the Proteaceae for A. P. de Candolle's "Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis". Under Meissner's taxonomic arrangement of Banksia, "B. victoriae" was placed in section "Eubanksia", series "Dryandroideae".cite encyclopedia | author = Meissner, Carl | year = 1856 | chapter = Proteaceae | editor = de Candolle, A. P. | encyclopedia = Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis | volume = 14 | location = Paris | publisher = Sumptibus Sociorum Treuttel et Wurtz] This arrangement stood until 1870, which George Bentham published his arrangement, in which he placed the species in section "Orthostylis". A major disruption to "Banksia"'s taxonomic nomenclature occurred in 1890, when Otto Kuntze challenged "Banksia" L.f. on the grounds that "Banksia" J.R.Forst & G.Forst had precedence. He proposed to transfer all "Banksia" species to the new genus "Sirmuellera", but this was rejected, and "Sirmuellera victoriae" (Meisn.) Kuntze is now considered a nomenclatural synonym of "B. victoriae".APNI | name = "Banksia victoriae" Meisn. | id = 55728]

Bentham's arrangement stood for over a century, before being superseded by Alex George's revision, published in his 1981 monograph "The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)". George placed the species in "Banksia" subgenus "Banksia", section "Banksia", series "Crocinae". This placement was rejected by Kevin Thiele and Pauline Ladiges in 1996; their arrangement, which was based on a cladistic analysis of morphological features, discarded "Crocinae" altogether, instead placing "B. victoriae" in series "Banksia", subseries "Cratistylis", alongside "B. burdettii" (Burdett's Banksia).cite journal | author = Thiele, Kevin and Pauline Y. Ladiges | year = 1996 | title = A Cladistic Analysis of Banksia (Proteaceae) | journal = Australian Systematic Botany | volume = 9 | issue = 5 | pages = 661–733 | doi = 10.1071/SB9960661] However, George did not accept this revision, and overturned it in his 1999 monograph for the "Flora of Australia" series.

Under George's taxonomic arrangement of "Banksia", "B. victoriae" placement may be summarised as follows::Genus "Banksia"::Subgenus "Banksia":::Section "Banksia"::::Series "Salicinae"::::Series "Grandes"::::Series "Banksia"::::Series "Crocinae":::::"B. prionotes" - "B. burdettii" - "B. hookeriana" - "B. victoriae"::::Series "Prostratae"::::Series "Cyrtostylis"::::Series "Tetragonae"::::Series "Bauerinae"::::Series "Quercinae":::Section "Coccinea":::Section "Oncostylis"::Subgenus "Isostylis"

Since 1998, Austin Mast has been publishing results of ongoing cladistic analyses of DNA sequence data for the subtribe Banksiinae, which comprises "Banksia" and "Dryandra". Mast's analysis strongly supports Thiele's placement of "B. victoriae", finding it to fall within a clade with "B. menziesii" (Menzies' Banksia), "B. burdettii", "B. hookeriana" (Hooker's Banksia) and "B. prionotes" (Acorn Banksia), all of which are members of Thiele and Ladiges' "Cratistylis". Overall, the inferred phylogeny is very greatly different from George's arrangement, and provides compelling evidence for the paraphyly of "Banksia" with respect to "Dryandra".cite journal | author = Mast, A. R. | year = 1998 | title = Molecular systematics of subtribe Banksiinae ("Banksia" and "Dryandra"; Proteaceae) based on cpDNA and nrDNA sequence data: implications for taxonomy and biogeography | journal = Australian Systematic Botany | volume = 11 | pages = 321–342 | doi = 10.1071/SB97026] cite journal | author = Mast, Austin and Thomas J. Givnish | year = 2002 | title = Historical biogeography and the origin of stomatal distributions in "Banksia" and "Dryandra" (Proteaceae) based on Their cpDNA phylogeny | journal = American Journal of Botany | volume = 89 | issue = 8 | pages = 1311–1323 | id = ISSN|0002-9122 | url = http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/89/8/1311 | accessdate=2006-07-02 | doi = 10.3732/ajb.89.8.1311] cite journal | author = Mast, Austin R., Eric H. Jones and Shawn P. Havery | year = 2005 | volume = 18 | issue = 1 | title = An assessment of old and new DNA sequence evidence for the paraphyly of "Banksia" with respect to "Dryandra" (Proteaceae) | journal = Australian Systematic Botany | pages = 75–88 | publisher = CSIRO Publishing / Australian Systematic Botany Society | doi = 10.1071/SB04015] Early in 2007, Mast and Thiele initiated a rearrangement of "Banksia" by transferring "Dryandra" into it, and publishing "B." subg. "Spathulatae" for the species having spoon-shaped cotyledons; thus they also redefined the autonym "B." subg. "Banksia" as containing the species not having spoon-shaped cotyledons. They foreshadowed publishing a full arrangement once DNA sampling of "Dryandra" was complete; in the meantime, if Mast and Thiele's nomenclatural changes are taken as an interim arrangement, then "B. victoriae" is placed in "B." subg. "Banksia".cite journal | author = Mast, Austin R. and Kevin Thiele | year = 2007 | title = The transfer of "Dryandra" R.Br. to "Banksia" L.f. (Proteaceae) | journal = Australian Systematic Botany | volume = 20 | pages = 63–71 | doi = 10.1071/SB06016]

Distribution and habitat

"B. victoriae" occurs only within a fairly small areas between Northampton and the lower reaches of the Murchison River. Under Version 5.1 of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia (IBRA), this distribution fell entirely without the Geraldton Sandplains biogeographic region.FloraBase | name = "Banksia victoriae" Meisn. | id = 1855] However the boundary between the Geraldton Sandplains and Yalgoo biogeographic regions has been substantially redrawn for IBRA Version 6.1, and it is not clear from publicly available data whether the species should now be considered to occur also in the Yalgoo region.

The species grows in deep yellow or pale red sand, amongst tall shrubland. It was previously thought to occur only twenty to thirty kilometres from the coast, but during "The Banksia Atlas" project, a few specimens were found within just a few kilometres of the coast. Although restricted to a small area, it is quite common within this area, and is sometimes dominates the vegetation.The Banksia Atlas]

Ecology

Like most other Proteaceae, "B. victoriae" has proteoid roots, roots with dense clusters of short lateral rootlets that form a mat in the soil just below the leaf litter. These enhance solubilisation of nutrients, thus allowing nutrient uptake in low-nutrient soils such as the phosphorus-deficient native soils of Australia.

The species lacks a lignotuber, so plants are killed by bushfire. However, it is adapted to release its aerial bank of seeds following a bushfire, and so regenerates rapidly.The Banksia Book] This behaviour, known as serotiny, makes "B. victoriae" dependent upon a suitable fire regime for successful regeneration. Other threats to the species include susceptibility to "Phytophthora cinnamomi" dieback, and the loss of flowers due to harvesting for the cut flower trade. However, it is not currently considered endangered, partly because a significant proportion of the population occur within the Kalbarri National Park; it has not been given a rating under Western Australia's Department of Environment and Conservation's Declared Rare and Priority Flora List.

Cultivation

With attractive deep green foliage and large, brightly coloured flower species that are held outside the canopy, "B. victoriae" is a popular garden plant. It requires a sunny aspect in well drained soil, and is sensitive to frost. It is easy to propagate from seed, but rather difficult from cuttings. It grows quickly, and flowers in three to four years from seed. George recommends only light pruning, not below the green foliage.cite web | url = http://asgap.org.au/b-vic.html | accessdate = 2007-05-28 | title = "Banksia victoriae" | publisher = ASGAP]

It is also very popular for cut flower production, not just because of its attractive foliage and flower spikes, but also because flower spikes occur terminally on a branch, allowing flowers to be cut with a stem.

References

External links

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