Banksia meisneri

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

Common name:                Meisner's Banksia

Conservation status:  Subspecies ascendens is classified as rare or near threatened

• Banksia meisneri is classed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife, but subspecies ascendens is classified as "Priority Four"[19] 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 (meisneri) honours the Swiss botanist, Carl Meissner

Flowers:                  

• The flower spikes develop mostly on side branches and are 20–30 mm long and 45–50 mm wide with small, hairy bracts at the base of the flowers

• The flowers are golden brown with yellow styles, curved at the tip and the perianth is 7–9 mm long and hairy on the outside

• The infructescence is more or less spherical or slightly compressed vertically, 30–40 mm long and 40–50 mm wide, with the individual follicles 1–7 mm high and 3–4 mm wide

• Flowering occurs from April to September

Fruit:                         

• This banksia does not have a lignotuber and is killed by fire, when the follicles open and release the seeds

• The follicles usually remain closed until after fire

Leaves:         

• The branches have crowded linear to narrow elliptic leaves that are 3–7 mm long and 1.0–1.5 mm wide

• The edges of the leaves are rolled under

• The upper surface is woolly at first, becoming glabrous as it matures 

• The lower surface is woolly but mostly hidden by the rolled edges

Stem & branches: 

• A single stem at the base but much branched above

• The branches are covered with woolly hair and have crowded leaves

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A shrub which grow to a height of up to 2 m

Habitat:   

• It grows in deep sand in shrubland and low woodland in low-lying flats

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to a small area in the south-west of Western Australia

• Meisner's banksia is found between Collie, Pingrup and Tenterden in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains and Jarrah Forest biogeographic regions 

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy 

  • Banksia meisneri was first formally described in 1845 by Johann Georg Christian Lehmann and the description was published in Plantae Preissianae

  • 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 meisneri

  • 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

  • In 1981, Alex George described two varieties of B. meisneri in the journal Nuytsia:

    • Banksia meisneri var. ascendens that has leaves 8–15 mm long and more or less directed upwards

    • Banksia meisneri Lehm. var. meisneri that has leaves 3–7 mm long and spreading or directed downwards

  • In 1996, George raised the two varieties of B. meisneri to subspecies status and the names have been accepted at the Australian Plant Census:

    • Banksia meisneri subsp. ascendens 

    • Banksia meisneri subsp. meisneri

• Use in horticulture

  • This banksia has only rarely been grown in cultivation

  • It is fast growing and flowers from seed after about five years

  • A Mediterranean climate is preferred and the species is difficult to maintain in eastern Australia

  • It is grown from seed which germinates after between 28 and 39 days

Sources of information:

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