![Banksia littoralis](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Banksia_littoralis.jpg)
''Banksia littoralis'', commonly known as the swamp banksia,
swamp oak, river banksia or seaside banksia and the western swamp banksia,
[ is a species of tree 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 the south-west of Western Australia. The Noongar
The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...
peoples know the plant as pungura, boongura or gwangia. It has rough, crumbly bark, linear, more or less serrated leaves arranged in whorls
A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs).
Whorls in nature
File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...
, yellow flowers and up to two hundred follicles in each head.
Description
''Banksia littoralis'' is a tree that typically grows up to around , sometimes to , with rough, crumbly bark and woolly-hairy stems. The leaves are arranged in whorls and are linear in shape, usually serrated in the upper half, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are arranged on a cylindrical head long and wide when the flowers open. The flowers are 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 hooked 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 March to July and the follicles are broadly linear to narrow elliptical, long, high and wide, the old flowers having fallen. There are sometimes up to two hundred follicles in each head.
Taxonomy and naming
''Banksia littoralis'' was first formally described by Robert Brown in ''Transactions of the Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...
'' from specimens he collected from around the shores of King George Sound
King George Sound ( nys , Menang Koort) is a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Named King George the Third's Sound in 1791, it was referred to as King George's Sound from 1805. The name "King George Sound" gradually came into use ...
, "especially of Princess Royal Harbour
Princess Royal Harbour is a part of King George Sound on the South coast of Western Australia, and harbour to Albany. On its northern shore is the Port of Albany. The name ''Princess Royal'' also appears in Albany in Princess Royal Fortress an ...
" in December 1801.
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 littoralis''. 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.
''Banksia littoralis'' appears most closely related to the other species of the series ''Spicigerae'' such as '' B. seminuda'' and '' B. occidentalis'' and is also quite closely related to '' B. verticillata'' a smaller shrub with much thicker leaves.
Distribution and habitat
Swamp banksia to coastal areas of south western Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
from the Wheatbelt, Peel, South West
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
and Great Southern regions where it is often situated on along creeks and rivers, in low-lying, seasonally damp areas like swamps and depressions where it grows well in high moisture peaty to sandy soils. It is often part of low woodland communities and often is associated with ''Melaleuca preissiana
''Melaleuca preissiana'', commonly known as stout paperbark, modong or moonah, is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to coastal areas of southwest Australia. It is a shrub or small tree with papery bark, small leaves and sp ...
'' and also in ''Eucalyptus gomphocephala
''Eucalyptus gomphocephala'', known as tuart, is a species of tree, one of the six forest giants of Southwest Australia. Tuart forest was common on the Swan coastal plain, until the valuable trees were felled for export and displaced by the urb ...
'' forest communities and is rarely found as a part of low coastal 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 ...
communities. The range extends from around Mount Lesueur
Mount Lesueur is a near-circular, flat-topped mesa located from Jurien Bay in Western Australia. It rises above the surrounding lateritic plain of Lesueur National Park which has eroded away around it.
Mount Lesueur was first sighted and nam ...
in the north to around Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly (but not most southerly) mainland point of the Australian continent, in the state of Western Australia.
Description
A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further in Flinders Ba ...
in the south west extending east to around Two Peoples Bay and the Stirling Range
The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, south-east of Perth. It is over wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranb ...
.
Ecology
Response to fire
This banksia releases its seeds from the follicles as they mature and the plant responds to fire by resprouting from epicormic buds
An epicormic shoot is a shoot growing from an epicormic bud, which lies underneath the bark of a trunk, stem, or branch of a plant.
Epicormic buds lie dormant beneath the bark, their growth suppressed by hormones from active shoots higher up ...
.
Use in horticulture
''Banksia littoralis'' is relatively easy to grow. It is possibly not as sensitive to dieback
Dieback may refer to a number of plant problems and diseases including:
* Forest dieback caused by acid rain, heavy metal pollution, or imported pathogens
* The death of regions of a plant or similar organism caused by physical damage, such as from ...
as other western banksias. Seeds do not require any treatment, and take 20 to 36 days to germinate.
References
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q2712345
littoralis
Endemic flora of Western Australia
Eudicots of Western Australia
Trees of Australia
Trees of Mediterranean climate
Taxa named by Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)
Ornamental trees
Plants described in 1810