Banksia nobilis
Encyclopedia
Banksia nobilis, commonly known as Golden Dryandra, Great Dryandra or Kerosene Bush, is a shrub
endemic to Western Australia
. It occurs on lateritic
rises from Eneabba
to Katanning
in the state's Southwest Botanic Province. With large pinnatifid leaves with triangular lober, and a golden or reddish pink inflorescence, it is a popular garden plant. It was known as Dryandra nobilis until 2007, when all Dryandra species were transferred to Banksia
by Austin Mast
and Kevin Thiele
. There are two subspecies, B. nobilis subsp. nobilis
and B. nobilis subsp. fragrans.
five to 15 millimetres long. Inflorescences occur on short lateral branchlets; this species bears a great many inflorescences, often carrying an inflorescence in almost every axil. Flowers are golden or reddish pink, with a greenish cream limb. After flowering, heads can bear up to 5 follicles
each.
from the vicinity of the Swan River Colony
. The species was published under the name Dryandra nobilis by John Lindley
in his 1840 A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony
, where he referred to it as "a most splendid plant in the way of D. longifolia and tenuifolia, with leaves from a foot to a foot and half long". Lindley did not specify his type
material, and there is no type at the University of Cambridge
Herbarium, where most of Lindley's type specimens are lodged. However most of A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony is based upon the collections of Drummond, and one of Drummond's specimens has since been selected as lectotype
for the species. Lindley also proffered no etymology
for the specific epithet, but it is accepted that it comes from the Latin
nobilis ("noble, imposing") in reference to the purportedly noble appearance of the plant.
In addition to plant specimens, Drummond also sent seed
s of D. nobilis to England. Plants were raised from Drummond's seeds, and in 1852 one of them flowered, making D. nobilis one of only two Dryandra species known to have flowered in Europe
from Drummond's seed. The flowering specimen was about seven years old at the time, and about four feet high. It became the basis for a lithographed
plate by Walter Hood Fitch
, which was featured in Volume 78 of Curtis's Botanical Magazine
. By this time, however, the enthusiasm for Proteaceae
that prevailed amongst horticulturalists in the 1840s has waned, and D. nobilis would be the last Dryandra to feature in Curtis's Botanical Magazine.
Text accompanying Fitch's plate by William Jackson Hooker
suggested that Carl Meissner
considered their specimen to be the then unpublished species Dryandra runcinata, but this was a mis-identification: D. runcinata is now considered a synonym of Banksia squarrosa
rather than this species.
The species has had a fairly uneventful taxonomic history since publication, with only three events of taxonomic interest since publication. In 1891, Otto Kuntze
made an unsuccessful attempt to transfer the genus Dryandra into the name Josephia, in the process publishing the name Josephia nobilis for this species. That name is now considered a nomenclatural synonym of B. nobilis. In 1996 Alex George
published a subspecies, D. nobilis subsp. fragrans (now B. nobilis subsp. fragrans), therefore also invoking the autonym
D. nobilis subsp. nobilis (now B. nobilis subsp. nobilis
) to encompass the type material. Finally, in 2007 the genus Dryandra was transferred into Banksia
by Austin Mast
and Kevin Thiele
, resulting in the publication of the current name for this species, Banksia nobilis (Lindl.) A.R.Mast & K.R.Thiele.
It occurs on lateritic
rises from Eneabba
in the north to Katanning
in the south. Much of its distribution roughly follows the boundary between the Jarrah Forest
and Avon Wheatbelt
biogeographic
regions, but at its northern limits it extends into the Swan Coastal Plain
and Geraldton Sandplains
. For most of its range it grows in eucalypt woodland and tall shrubland
, but at its northern extents it grows amongst thick kwongan
.
An assessment of the potential impact of climate change
on this species found that severe change is likely to lead to a contraction of its range by up to 80% by 2080; but under less severe change scenarios the distribution may contract slightly or even grow, depending on how effectively it can migrate into newly habitable areas.
It prefers heavy, gravelly soil with excellent drainage, in a sunny position. It is drought tolerant, and frost tolerant down to -7°C. Plants become straggly and untidy with age, so should be pruned when young. Propagation is by seed, as the hairy stems of this plant make it virtually impossible to strike stem cuttings, and heel cuttings have been met with limited success. Germination takes three to four weeks, and has an excellent success rate. Flowering usually begins at three to four years from seed.
D. nobilis subsp. fragrans is new to cultivation and there is little information available for it. It probably requires a similar aspect to subspecies nobilis, but would be better suited to warmer areas.
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
endemic to Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. It occurs on lateritic
Laterite
Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock...
rises from Eneabba
Eneabba, Western Australia
Eneabba is a town on the Brand Highway located 278 km north of Perth, Western Australia.The area is famous for its spectacular display of wildflowers in the spring. It is also home to the Iluka Resources mineral sands facility....
to Katanning
Katanning, Western Australia
Katanning is a town located 277 km south east of Perth, Western Australia on the Great Southern Highway. At the 2006 census, Katanning had a population of 3,808.-History:...
in the state's Southwest Botanic Province. With large pinnatifid leaves with triangular lober, and a golden or reddish pink inflorescence, it is a popular garden plant. It was known as Dryandra nobilis until 2007, when all Dryandra species were transferred to Banksia
Banksia
Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...
by Austin Mast
Austin Mast
Austin R. Mast is a research botanist. Born in 1972, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2000. He is currently an associate professor within the Department of Biological Science at Florida State University , and has been director of FSU's since August 2003.One of his...
and Kevin Thiele
Kevin Thiele
Kevin R. Thiele is curator of the Western Australian Herbarium. His research interests include the systematics of the plant families Proteaceae, Rhamnaceae and Violaceae, and the conservation ecology of grassy woodland ecosystems...
. There are two subspecies, B. nobilis subsp. nobilis
Banksia nobilis subsp. nobilis
Banksia nobilis subsp. nobilis is a subspecies of Banksia nobilis. As an autonym, it is defined as encompassing the type material of the species. It was known as Dryandra nobilis subsp. nobilis until 2007, when Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele sunk all Dryandra into Banksia. As with other members of...
and B. nobilis subsp. fragrans.
Description
B. nobilis grows as a shrub up to four metres high. Its leaves are pinnatifid, with 14 to 32 triangular lobes on each side from eight to 22 centimetres long, five to 25 millimetres wide, on a petiolePetiole (botany)
In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...
five to 15 millimetres long. Inflorescences occur on short lateral branchlets; this species bears a great many inflorescences, often carrying an inflorescence in almost every axil. Flowers are golden or reddish pink, with a greenish cream limb. After flowering, heads can bear up to 5 follicles
Follicle (fruit)
In botany, a follicle is a dry unilocular many-seeded fruit formed from one carpel and dehiscing by the ventral suture in order to release seeds, such as in larkspur, magnolia, banksia, peony and milkweed....
each.
Taxonomy
Specimens of B. nobilis were first collected in the 1830s by James DrummondJames Drummond (botanist)
James Drummond was a botanist and naturalist who was an early settler in Western Australia.-Early life:...
from the vicinity of the Swan River Colony
Swan River Colony
The Swan River Colony was a British settlement established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. The name was a pars pro toto for Western Australia. In 1832, the colony was officially renamed Western Australia, when the colony's founding Lieutenant-Governor, Captain James Stirling,...
. The species was published under the name Dryandra nobilis by John Lindley
John Lindley
John Lindley FRS was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist.-Early years:Born in Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four children of George and Mary Lindley. George Lindley was a nurseryman and pomologist and ran a commercial nursery garden...
in his 1840 A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony
A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony
A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony, also known by its standard botanical abbreviation Sketch Veg. Swan R., is an 1839 article by John Lindley on the flora of the Swan River Colony...
, where he referred to it as "a most splendid plant in the way of D. longifolia and tenuifolia, with leaves from a foot to a foot and half long". Lindley did not specify his type
Biological type
In biology, a type is one particular specimen of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached...
material, and there is no type at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
Herbarium, where most of Lindley's type specimens are lodged. However most of A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony is based upon the collections of Drummond, and one of Drummond's specimens has since been selected as lectotype
Lectotype
In botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature, a lectotype is a kind of name-bearing type. When a species was originally described on the basis of a name-bearing type consisting of multiple specimens, one of those may be designated as the lectotype...
for the species. Lindley also proffered no etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
for the specific epithet, but it is accepted that it comes from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
nobilis ("noble, imposing") in reference to the purportedly noble appearance of the plant.
In addition to plant specimens, Drummond also sent seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s of D. nobilis to England. Plants were raised from Drummond's seeds, and in 1852 one of them flowered, making D. nobilis one of only two Dryandra species known to have flowered in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
from Drummond's seed. The flowering specimen was about seven years old at the time, and about four feet high. It became the basis for a lithographed
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
plate by Walter Hood Fitch
Walter Hood Fitch
Walter Hood Fitch was a botanical illustrator, born in Glasgow, Scotland, who executed some 10,000 drawings for various publications...
, which was featured in Volume 78 of Curtis's Botanical Magazine
Curtis's Botanical Magazine
The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed, is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name Curtis's Botanical Magazine....
. By this time, however, the enthusiasm for Proteaceae
Proteaceae
Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises about 80 genera with about 1600 species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae they make up the order Proteales. Well known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea,...
that prevailed amongst horticulturalists in the 1840s has waned, and D. nobilis would be the last Dryandra to feature in Curtis's Botanical Magazine.
Text accompanying Fitch's plate by William Jackson Hooker
William Jackson Hooker
Sir William Jackson Hooker, FRS was an English systematic botanist and organiser. He held the post of Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University, and was the first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He enjoyed the friendship and support of Sir Joseph Banks for his exploring,...
suggested that Carl Meissner
Carl Meissner
Carl Daniel Friedrich Meissner was a Swiss botanist.Born in Bern, Switzerland on 1 November 1800, he was christened Meisner but later changed the spelling of his name to Meissner. For most of his 40 year career he was Professor of Botany at University of Basel...
considered their specimen to be the then unpublished species Dryandra runcinata, but this was a mis-identification: D. runcinata is now considered a synonym of Banksia squarrosa
Banksia squarrosa
Banksia squarrosa, commonly known as Pingle, is a shrub endemic to Western Australia.-Taxonomy:Specimens of B. squarrosa were first collected from near King George Sound in 1829 by William Baxter, and published by Robert Brown as Dryandra squarrosa the following year...
rather than this species.
The species has had a fairly uneventful taxonomic history since publication, with only three events of taxonomic interest since publication. In 1891, Otto Kuntze
Otto Kuntze
Otto Carl Ernst Kuntze was a German botanist.-Biography:Otto Kuntze was born in Leipzig.An apothecary in his early career, he published an essay entitled Pocket Fauna of Leipzig. Between 1863 and...
made an unsuccessful attempt to transfer the genus Dryandra into the name Josephia, in the process publishing the name Josephia nobilis for this species. That name is now considered a nomenclatural synonym of B. nobilis. In 1996 Alex George
Alex George
Alexander Segger George is a Western Australian botanist. He is the authority on the plant genera Banksia and Dryandra...
published a subspecies, D. nobilis subsp. fragrans (now B. nobilis subsp. fragrans), therefore also invoking the autonym
Autonym (botany)
In botanical nomenclature, autonyms are automatically created names, as regulated by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature . Autonyms are cited without an author. Relevant provisions are in articles 6.8, 22.1-3 and 26.1-3....
D. nobilis subsp. nobilis (now B. nobilis subsp. nobilis
Banksia nobilis subsp. nobilis
Banksia nobilis subsp. nobilis is a subspecies of Banksia nobilis. As an autonym, it is defined as encompassing the type material of the species. It was known as Dryandra nobilis subsp. nobilis until 2007, when Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele sunk all Dryandra into Banksia. As with other members of...
) to encompass the type material. Finally, in 2007 the genus Dryandra was transferred into Banksia
Banksia
Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...
by Austin Mast
Austin Mast
Austin R. Mast is a research botanist. Born in 1972, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2000. He is currently an associate professor within the Department of Biological Science at Florida State University , and has been director of FSU's since August 2003.One of his...
and Kevin Thiele
Kevin Thiele
Kevin R. Thiele is curator of the Western Australian Herbarium. His research interests include the systematics of the plant families Proteaceae, Rhamnaceae and Violaceae, and the conservation ecology of grassy woodland ecosystems...
, resulting in the publication of the current name for this species, Banksia nobilis (Lindl.) A.R.Mast & K.R.Thiele.
Distribution and habitat
Laterite
Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock...
rises from Eneabba
Eneabba, Western Australia
Eneabba is a town on the Brand Highway located 278 km north of Perth, Western Australia.The area is famous for its spectacular display of wildflowers in the spring. It is also home to the Iluka Resources mineral sands facility....
in the north to Katanning
Katanning, Western Australia
Katanning is a town located 277 km south east of Perth, Western Australia on the Great Southern Highway. At the 2006 census, Katanning had a population of 3,808.-History:...
in the south. Much of its distribution roughly follows the boundary between the Jarrah Forest
Jarrah Forest
Jarrah Forest is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia.-Location and description:The ecoregion stands on the 300m high Yilgarn block inland plateau and includes wooded valleys such as those of Western Australia's Murray River and the Helena River near...
and Avon Wheatbelt
Avon Wheatbelt
Avon Wheatbelt is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.-Further reading:...
biogeographic
Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species , organisms, and ecosystems in space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities vary in a highly regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area...
regions, but at its northern limits it extends into the Swan Coastal Plain
Swan Coastal Plain
The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geological and biological zone, one of Western Australia's...
and Geraldton Sandplains
Geraldton Sandplains
Geraldton Sandplains is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.It has two sub regions: -* Geraldton Hills sub region* Lesuer sub region...
. For most of its range it grows in eucalypt woodland and tall shrubland
Shrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub or brush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity...
, but at its northern extents it grows amongst thick kwongan
Kwongan
Kwongan is a type of heathland found on the coastal plains of Western Australia. The name is derived from the language of the Noongar people. Kwongan comprises floristically-rich heath with dense thickets of sclerophyllous shrubs and isolated small trees...
.
Conservation
D. nobilis subsp. nobilis is not currently endangered, and is currently exploited in the wild by the cut flower industry. D. nobilis subsp. fragrans has been listed as Priority Three - Poorly Known Taxa on the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation's Declared Rare and Priority Flora List.An assessment of the potential impact of climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
on this species found that severe change is likely to lead to a contraction of its range by up to 80% by 2080; but under less severe change scenarios the distribution may contract slightly or even grow, depending on how effectively it can migrate into newly habitable areas.
Cultivation
D. nobilis subsp. nobilis has long been a popular garden plant because of its prolific flowering.It prefers heavy, gravelly soil with excellent drainage, in a sunny position. It is drought tolerant, and frost tolerant down to -7°C. Plants become straggly and untidy with age, so should be pruned when young. Propagation is by seed, as the hairy stems of this plant make it virtually impossible to strike stem cuttings, and heel cuttings have been met with limited success. Germination takes three to four weeks, and has an excellent success rate. Flowering usually begins at three to four years from seed.
D. nobilis subsp. fragrans is new to cultivation and there is little information available for it. It probably requires a similar aspect to subspecies nobilis, but would be better suited to warmer areas.