Banksia squarrosa

Location & distribution maps

Plant  information

Common name:                Pingle

Conservation status:  subspecies argillacea is Threatened

• This banksia is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife, but subspecies argillacea is listed as "Threatened Flora (Declared Rare Flora — Extant)" by the Department of Environment and Conservation (Western Australia)

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:                  

• The flowers are yellow and are arranged in heads of between fifty and seventy 

• It has narrow triangular to linear involucral bracts 10–13 mm long at the base of each head

• The perianth is 18–24 mm long and the pistil 20–26 mm long and straight

• Flowering occurs from June to November 

Fruit:                         

• The follicles are oblong to egg-shaped, 8–13 mm long and more or less glabrous

• Up to seven follicles form in each head

Leaves:         

• Sessile linear to narrow lance-shaped leaves that are 30–90 mm long and 5–12 mm wide 

• With up to ten sharply-pointed, triangular teeth on each side

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• A shrub that typically grows to a height of 4 m but does not form a lignotuber

Habitat:   

•  Woodland and forest

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to Western Australia

• It is widely distributed in the south-west of WA, occurring between Bindoon, the Whicher Range and Albany

  • Subspecies argillacea has a limited distribution near the western side of the Whicher Range

  • Subspecies squarrosa occurs throughout the species' range, except near the Whicher Range

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy and naming

  • This species was first collected from near King George Sound in 1829 by William Baxter, and its description was published by Robert Brown in Supplementum primum Prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae as Dryandra squarrosa the following year

  • In 1839 John Lindley described D. carduacea from specimens collected in the vicinity of the Swan River

  • In 1996, Alex George reduced D. carduacea to a synonym of D. squarrosa

  • In 1996, George described two subspecies of D. squarrosa:

    • Dryandra squarrosa subsp. argillacea that has a perianth 18–19 mm (0.71–0.75 in) long with a glabrous limb

    • Dryandra squarrosa subsp. squarrosa that has a perianth 19–24 mm (0.75–0.94 in) long with a hairy limb

  • In 2007 Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele transferred all dryandras to the genus Banksia and renamed this species Banksia squarrosa and the two subspecies argillacea and squarrosa respectively

  • The names of the subspecies are accepted by the Australian Plant Census

Sources of information:

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