Banksia spinulosa var. spinulosa | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
(unranked): | Angiosperms |
(unranked): | Eudicots |
Order: | Proteales |
Family: | Proteaceae |
Genus: | Banksia |
Species: | B. spinulosa |
Variety: | B. spinulosa var. spinulosa |
Trinomial name | |
Banksia spinulosa Sm. var. spinulosa |
Banksia spinulosa var. spinulosa is a shrub that grows along the east coast of Australia, in Queensland and New South Wales.
As with the other varieties of B. spinulosa (Hairpin Banksia), B. spinulosa var. spinulosa grows as a multi-stemmed lignotuberous shrub with flower spikes that are all golden or golden with red or purple styles. Its strongly revolute leaf margins distinguish it from the other varieties, and it is further distinguished from B. spinulosa var. collina in having narrower leaves that are serrate only towards the leaf tips. It is also easily distinguished from B. spinulosa var. cunninghamii by its lignotuber and resultant multi-stemmed habit.
B. spinulosa var. spinulosa is an autonym that encompasses the type material of the species. This material was collected by John White, probably in 1792. The following year, the species was formally described by Smith in his A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland, and given the specific epithet "spinulosa", a Latin term meaning having minute spines, probably in reference to the leaf tips.
Before 1810, no taxon had been circumscribed as equivalent to today's B. spinulosa var. spinulosa. That year saw the publication of Banksia collina (now B. spinulosa var. collina), and from then until 1981, the circumscription of B. spinulosa was roughly equivalent to the present-day circumscription of B. spinulosa var. spinulosa.
In the first infrageneric arrangement of Banksia, that of Brown in 1830, B. spinulosa was placed in subgenus Banksia verae, the "True Banksias", because its inflorescence is a typical Banksia flower spike. It was placed next to B. cunninghamii and B. collina, both now considered varieties of B. spinulosa; these three were placed between B. ericifolia (Heath-leaved Banksia) and B. occidentalis (Red Swamp Banksia).Banksia verae was renamed Eubanksia by Stephan Endlicher in 1847.