''Banksia hirta'' is a species of shrub that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Western Australia. It has hairy stems, deeply serrated leaves, pale yellow flowers in heads of about one hundred and shining follicles. It is restricted to the

Stirling Range National Park Stirling Range National Park is a national park in the Great Southern (Western Australia), Great Southern region of Western Australia, approximately south-east of Perth. There is also an eponymous Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality, ...

Description

''Banksia hirta'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of and has hairy stems but does not form a

lignotuber A lignotuber is a woody swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem, such as by fire. Other woody plants may develop basal burls as a similar survival strategy, often as a respons ...

. The leaves are lance-shaped to narrow egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, and deeply serrated, long and wide on a

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

long. There are between five and ten sharply-pointed, triangular lobes on each side of the leaves. The flowers are arranged in heads of between 90 and 110 with woolly-hairy, linear to lance-shaped

involucral bracts In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also look ...

long at the base of the head. The flowers have a pale yellow

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower. It is a structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepal ...

long and a cream-coloured

pistil Gynoecium (; ; : gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl (botany), whorl of a flower; it consists ...

long. Flowering occurs from May to October and the follicles are egg-shaped, long and shiny with only a few hairs.

Taxonomy and naming

This banksia was first formally described in 1996 by Alex George who gave it the name ''Dryandra hirsuta'' and published the description in the journal ''

Nuytsia ''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during the ...

'' from specimens collected in the Stirling Range National Park in 1986. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

(''hirsuta'') is a Latin word meaning "having long, rather coarse hairs" referring to the stems, young leaves and involucral bracts. In 2007,

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 a professor within the Department of Biological Science at Florida State University (FSU), and has been ...

and

Kevin Thiele Kevin R. Thiele is currently an adjunct associate professor at the University of Western Australia and the director of Taxonomy Australia. He was the curator of the Western Australian Herbarium from 2006 to 2015. His research interests include ...

transferred all the ''Dryandra'' species to ''Banksia'' but as the name ''Banksia hirsuta'' had already been used by

Otto Kuntze Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze (23 June 1843 – 27 January 1907) 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 1866, he ...

for a species now accepted as ''Pimelea latifolia'' subsp. ''hirsuta'' Mast and Thiele changed the epithet to ''hirta'', a Latin word with a similar meaning to "hirsutus".

Distribution and habitat

''Banksia hirta'' grows in rocky shrubland and woodland in the central and western parts of the

Stirling Range The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, south-east of Perth. It is over wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranbro ...

Conservation status

This banksia is classified as " Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and en ...

meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q4856620

hirta Hirta () is the largest island in the St Kilda archipelago, on the western edge of Scotland. The names (in Scottish Gaelic) and ''Hirta'' (historically in English) have also been applied to the entire archipelago. Now without a permanent resi ...

Endemic flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1996 Taxa named by Alex George