''Banksia candolleana'', commonly known as the propeller banksia, is a species of shrub that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Western Australia. It has shiny green, deeply serrated leaves with triangular lobes and spikes of golden yellow flowers on short side branches.

Description

''Banksia candolleana'' is a many-branched shrub that typically grows to high, up to wide and forms a

lignotuber A lignotuber is a woody swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem, such as by fire. Other woody plants may develop basal burls as a similar survival strategy, often as a response t ...

. Its leaves are linear in outline, long and wide on a hairy petiole long. The leaves are shiny green with deep triangular lobes on the margins. The flower spikes are arranged in oval spikes long and wide on short side branches. The flowers are golden yellow with a

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

long and a curved

pistil Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

long. Flowering occurs from April to July and usually up to five curved, egg-shaped follicles long, high, wide and surrounded by the old flowers form on each spike.

Taxonomy

''Banksia candolleana'' was first formally described in 1855 by the Swiss botanist

Carl Meissner Carl Daniel Friedrich Meissner (1 November 1800 – 2 May 1874) was a Swiss botanist. Biography Born in Bern, Switzerland on 1 November 1800, he was christened Meisner but later changed the spelling of his name to Meissner. For most of his 40 ...

William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...

's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany from specimens collected by James Drummond. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

honours Meissner's countryman

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candol ...

. In 1891,

Otto Kuntze Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze (23 June 1843 – 27 January 1907) was a German botanist. Biography Otto Kuntze was born in Leipzig. An apothecary in his early career, he published an essay entitled ''Pocket Fauna of Leipzig''. Between 1863 and 1866 he ...

, in his ''

Revisio Generum Plantarum ''Revisio Generum Plantarum'', also known by its standard botanical abbreviation ''Revis. Gen. Pl.'', is a botanic treatise by Otto Kuntze. It was published in three volumes; the first two of these appeared in 1891, and the third was published in ...

'', 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 ''Pimelea'', commonly known as rice flowers, is a genus of plants belonging to the family Thymelaeaceae. There are about 150 species, including 110 in Australia and thirty six in New Zealand. Description Plants in the genus ''Pimelea'' are he ...

''. Kuntze proposed ''Sirmuellera'' as an alternative, referring to this species as ''Sirmuellera candolleana''. This application of the

principle of priority 270px, '' valid name. Priority is a fundamental principle of modern botanical nomenclature and zoological nomenclature. Essentially, it is the principle of recognising the first valid application of a name to a plant or animal. There are two asp ...

was largely ignored by Kuntze's contemporaries, and ''Banksia'' L.f. was formally conserved and ''Sirmuellera'' rejected in 1940.

Distribution and habitat

Propellor banksia is found from Arrowsmith south to Gingin on sandplains north of Perth where it usually grows in low

kwongan Kwongan is plant community found in south-western Western Australia. The name is a Bibbelmun (Noongar) Aboriginal term of wide geographical use defined by Beard (1976) as Kwongan has replaced other terms applied by European botanists such as ...

and the annual rainfall is .

Ecology

''Banksia candolleana'' regenerates from a woody

after bushfire. Some large shrubs have been estimated at 1,000 years old. The

white-tailed dunnart The white-tailed dunnart (''Sminthopsis granulipes''), also known as the ash-grey dunnart, is a dunnart native to Australia. Taxonomy A species first named by Gerard Krefft in 1872, using a specimen obtained at Albany, Western Australia, Alban ...

(''Sminthopsis granulipes'') has been recorded visiting flowerheads, though whether it is an effective pollinator is unknown. Ants and bees, including the European honeybee, have been recorded visiting flower spikes. pp. 72–73.

Use in horticulture

''Banksia candolleana'' is slow growing in cultivation and may take up to 10 years to flower from seed. It grows readily in well-drained soils in

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

s, but does not do well in climates of higher humidity on the east coast of Australia. Seeds do not require any treatment, and take 22 to 35 days to

germinate Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, fer ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banksia candolleana candolleana Endemic flora of Western Australia Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1855 Taxa named by Carl Meissner