''Banksia proteoides'', commonly known as king dryandra, is a

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

endemic to

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It was known as ''Dryandra proteoides'' until 2007, when all ''Dryandra'' species were transferred to ''

Banksia ''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and woody fruiting "cones" and head ...

'' by

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 ...

Description

It is a dense, bushy shrub, without 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 ...

, that reaches up to two metres high. Leaves are linear, 20 to 26 centimetres long and 10 to 20 millimetres long, with a pointed tip and serrated margins.

Inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

are yellow-brown, but concealed within the long red-brown outer bracts, making the flower head resemble that of a ''

Protea ''Protea'' () is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: ''suikerbos''). It is the type genus of the Proteaceae family. About 92% of the species occur only in the Cape Floristic Region, a narrow belt of mo ...

''.

Taxonomy

Specimens of ''B. proteoides'' were first collected in the 1830s by James Drummond from the vicinity of the

Swan River Colony The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just ''Swan River'', was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, an ...

. The species was published under the name ''Dryandra proteoides'' by

John Lindley John Lindley Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidology, orchidologist. Early years Born in Old Catton, Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four c ...

in his 1840 ''

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. Nearly 300 new species were published in it ...

'', where he described it as having "much the look of a Cape

". Lindley did not specify his

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

material, and there is no type at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

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 In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes ...

for the species. Lindley also proffered no

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

for the specific epithet, but it is accepted that it is a reference to the similarity of the flower heads to those of ''Protea''. The species has no infraspecific taxa; in 1870

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...

demoted ''Dryandra ferruginea'' (now ''

Banksia rufa ''Banksia rufa'' is a species of prostrate shrub that is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has broadly linear, pinnatifid or pinnatipartite leaves with between five and twenty lobes on each side, yellow, orange or brownish flo ...

'') to a variety of ''D. proteoides'', but this has since been reinstated to specific rank. There have been two attempts to transfer the species from ''Dryandra'' to a new name: in 1891,

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 ...

made an unsuccessful attempt to transfer the genus ''Dryandra'' into the name ''Josephia'', in the process publishing the incorrectly spelled name ''Josephia proteodes'' for this species. That name is now considered a nomenclatural synonym of ''B. proteoides''. More recently, in 2007 the genus ''Dryandra'' was transferred into ''

'' by

and

, resulting in the publication of the current name for this species, ''Banksia proteoides'' (Lindl.) A.R.Mast & K.R.Thiele.

Distribution and habitat

It grows in sandy gravelly soils or sandy loam, in

lateritic Laterite is a soil type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolo ...

hills amongst

Wandoo Wandoo is the common name for a number of Western Australian ''Eucalyptus'' species, all of which have smooth white bark. The original "wandoo" is ''Eucalyptus wandoo''. Additional species have been given this name because of a perceived likeness w ...

or Powderbark woodlands, between Toodyay and the

Dryandra Woodland The Dryandra Woodland National Park is a national park in Western Australia within the shires of Cuballing, Williams and Wandering, about south-east of Perth and north-west of the town of Narrogin. It is a complex of 17 distinct blocks man ...

, and also west of Kojonup. Thus it occurs in the

Avon Wheatbelt The Avon Wheatbelt is a bioregion in Western Australia. It has an area of . It is considered part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion. Geography The Avon Wheatbelt bioregion is mostly a gently undulating landscape with low rel ...

and

Jarrah Forest Jarrah Forest, also known as the Southwest Australia woodlands, is an interim Australian bioregion and ecoregion located in the south west of Western Australia.

regions of the Southwest Botanic Province.

Cultivation

''Banksia proteoides'' is not often cultivated. It requires an extremely well drained soil, being particularly susceptible to poor drainage. It prefers full sun and is hardy to both drought and frost once established. Propagation is by seed, but this is by no means easy. It is thought that the seed must be no older than twelve months, and even germination is erratic and slow.

References

External links

* * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q4856679 proteoides Eudicots of Western Australia Endemic flora of Western Australia