Banksia baxteri

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

Common name:                Bird's Nest Banksia

• Also, Baxter's Banksia

Conservation status:  Not threatened

• It is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife

Etymology:   

• The genus is named after Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820 ), who, in 1770, was the first European to collect specimens of these plants  

Flowers:                  

• Banksia baxteri is a

• The flowers are arranged in a broad oval inflorescence 75–86 mm wide on the ends of branches

• The individual flowers lemon-yellow with a perianth 39–43 mm long 

• The pistil is 42–49 mm long

• Flowering occurs from December to May but mainly from January to March

Fruit:                         

• Only a few follicles 35–42 mm long, 17–22 mm high and 15–20 mm wide develop 

• These are surrounded by the old flowers

Leaves:         

• The leaves are wedge-shaped, 70–170 mm long and 25–75 mm wide in outline 

• They are divided to the midlobe with between four and seven triangular lobes on each side surrounded by V-shaped spaces

• Petiole is 5–15 mm long

Stem & branches: 

• The branchlets and leaves are densely covered with woolly, white hairs when young

Roots:         

Habit:        

• An erect shrub that typically groups to a height of 1–5 m and that does not form a lignotuber

Habitat:   

• It grows with other shrubs such as Lambertia inermis, usually in deep sand 

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to Western Australia

• Mostly occurs within 50 km of the coast between East Mount Barren and Israelite Bay

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy 

  • Banksia baxteri was first formally described in 1830 by Robert Brown in the supplement to his Prodromus

  • The type specimens were collected by William Baxter in the mountains near King George Sound in 1829

  • In 1891, Otto Kuntze, in his Revisio Generum Plantarum, rejected the generic name Banksia L.f., on the grounds that the name Banksia had previously been published in 1776 as Banksia J.R.Forst & G.Forst, referring to the genus now known as Pimelea

  • Kuntze proposed Sirmuellera as an alternative, referring to this species as Sirmuellera baxteri

  • This application of the principle of priority was largely ignored by Kuntze's contemporaries, and Banksia L.f. was formally conserved and Sirmuellera rejected in 1940

• Ecology

  • A 1980 field study at Cheyne Beach showed it to be pollinated by the New Holland honeyeater and white-cheeked honeyeater

  • Banksia baxteri is serotinous, that is, it has an aerial seed bank in its canopy in the form of the follicles of the old flower spikes

  • These are opened with fire and release seed in large numbers, which germinate and grow after rain

  • Seed can last for many years; old spikes 9 to 12 years old have been found to have seed that remains 100% viable

• Use in horticulture

  • Seeds do not require any treatment, and take 21 to 42 days to germinate

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia_baxteri (2023)