Banksia chamaephyton

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

Common name:                Fishbone Banksia

Conservation status:  ...

• This banksia is classified as "Priority Four" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife, meaning that is rare or near threatened

Etymology:   

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

• The specific epithet (chamaephyton) is derived from ancient Greek words meaning "low-growing" and "plant", referring to the prostrate habit of this species

Flowers:                  

• The flowers are cream-coloured with a brown tip and arranged in a head 60–120 mm long surrounded at the base by velvety involucral bracts

• The perianth is 23–30 mm long and the pistil curved and 25–35 mm long

• Flowering occurs from late October to early December and there are up to fifteen elliptic follicles in each head, the follicles 25–40 mm long, 12–20 mm high and 15–20 mm wide

Fruit:                         

Leaves:         

• The leaves are erect, 200–500 mm long, 40–160 mm wide 

• On a petiole 40–210 mm long and has between ten and thirty linear lobes on each side

Stem & branches: 

• It has prostrate, underground stems 8–12 mm in diameter and hairy when young

Roots:         

Habit:        

• Banksia chamaephyton is a shrub that typically grows to 0.4 m  high and 2 m wide and forms a lignotuber

Habitat:   

Distribution:                  

• Fishbone banksia grows in kwongan between Eneabba and Mogumber

Additional notes:     

• Banksia chamaephyton, commonly known as the fishbone banksia, is a species of shrub that is endemic to Western Australia

• It has prostrate, underground stems, pinnatipartite leaves, cream-coloured and brown flowers arranged in spikes surrounded by hairy bracts

• It grows in kwongan near the lower west coast

• Taxonomy and naming

  • Banksia chamaephyton was first formally described in 1981 by Alex George from specimens he collected west of Mogumber in 1971

• Use in horticulture

  • Seeds do not require any treatment, and take around 25 days to germinate

Sources of information:

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