Banksia Rufa

''Banksia rufa'' is a species of prostrate shrub that is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has broadly linear, pinnatifid or pinnatipartite leaves with between five and twenty lobes on each side, yellow, orange or brownish flowers in heads of forty or more, and glabrous, egg-shaped follicles.

Description

''Banksia rufa'' is a shrub, either prostrate or growing to a height of and sometimes forming a lignotuber. The stems are short, highly branched and woolly-hairy. The leaves are broadly linear, pinnatifid or pinnatipartite, long and wide on a petiole up to long. There are between five and twenty sharply-pointed, linear or triangular lobes on each side of the leaves. The flowers are creamy yellow to orange or brownish and are arranged heads of between 40 and 115 with egg-shaped to oblong involucral bracts long at the base of the head. The perianth is long and the pistil long and gently curved. Flowering occurs from July to September and the follicles are egg-shaped, long and glabrous.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1855 Carl Meissner in '' Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany'' and was given the name ''Dryandra ferruginea'' from an unpublished description by Richard Kippist, the type material having been collected by James Drummond.

The following year, Meisner published a description of ''Dryandra runcinata'' in ''Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis'' and in 1870, George Bentham maintained ''D. runcinata'', but demoted ''D. ferruginea'' to ''Dryandra proteoides'' var. ''ferruginea''. This stood until 1996, when Alex George restored the specific rank of ''D. ferruginea'', and declared ''D. runcinata'' its synonym.

In the same 1996 paper, George described the subspecies ''chelomacarpa'', ''ferruginea'', ''flavescens'', ''obliquiloba'', ''pumila'' and ''tutanningensis'' in the journal ''Nuytsia'' and in 2005 described a seventh, subspecies ''magna'' in a later edition of the same journal.

In 2007, all ''Dryandra'' species were transferred to ''Banksia'' by Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele. As the name ''Banksia ferruginea'' had already been published in reference to the plant now known as '' Pimelea ferruginea'', Mast and Thiele changed the name ''Dryandra ferruginea'' to ''Banksia rufa''. The specific epithet (''rufa'') is from the Latin ''rufus'' ("reddish"). George's ''Dryandra ferruginea'' subspecies were renamed as follows, the names accepted by the Australian Plant Census:

* ''Banksia rufa'' subsp. ''chelomacarpa'' has prostrate stems and leaves long;
* ''Banksia rufa'' subsp. ''flavescens'' has prostrate stems and leaves wide;
* ''Banksia rufa'' subsp. ''magna'' has erect stems, involucral bracts long and is found near Nyabing and Dumbleyung;
* ''Banksia rufa'' subsp. ''obliquiloba'' is similar to subsp. ''magna'' but has less erect leaves and occurs in the Corrigin area;
* ''Banksia rufa'' subsp. ''pumila'' has erect stems, leaves long and wide, involucral bracts long, and is found in the Stirling Range;
* ''Banksia rufa'' subsp. ''rufa'' has erect stems, leaves long and wide, involucral bracts long, and is found from Wickepin to Nyabing and Lake Grace;
* ''Banksia rufa'' subsp. ''tutanningensis'' is similar to subsp. ''rufa'' and ''pumila'' but has bracts long, a longer pistil and is found south-east of Pingelly and east of Quairading.

Distribution and habitat

This banksia is widespread between Pingelly, the Stirling Range and Forrestania where it grows in shrubland and kwongan and is often locally common.

Conservation status

''Banksia rufa'' and subsp. ''rufa'' are listed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife but all the other subspecies have a priority rating.

References

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{{Taxonbar, from=Q4856692

rufa
Plants described in 1855
Taxa named by Carl Meissner