''Banksia'' ser. ''Crocinae'' is a

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Banksia ''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and fruiting "cones" and heads. ''Banksias'' range i ...

''. The series was first published by Alex George in 1981, but discarded by

Kevin Thiele Kevin R. Thiele is currently an adjunct associate professor at the University of Western Australia and the director of Taxonomy Australia. He was the curator of the Western Australian Herbarium from 2006 to 2015. His research interests include ...

and

Pauline Ladiges Pauline Yvonne Ladiges (born 1948) is a botanist whose contributions have been significant both in building the field of taxonomy, ecology and historical biogeography of Australian plants, particularly Eucalypts and flora, and in science educa ...

in 1996, and finally reinstated by George in 1999. Recent

cladistic Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...

analyses suggest that it is

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

or nearly so.

Species

It consists of four closely related species, all of which are endemic to

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 ...

; namely

Systematics

George 1981

''B.'' ser. ''Banksia'' originated in the 1981 arrangement of George, published in his classic monograph ''

The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae) "The genus ''Banksia'' L.f. (Proteaceae)" is a 1981 monograph by Alex George on the taxonomy of the plant genus ''Banksia''. Published by the Western Australian Herbarium as ''Nuytsia'' 3(3), it presented George's taxonomic arrangement of ''B ...

''. George grouped the four species into a series on the grounds that they are "remarkably similar especially in floral morphology", giving the series the name ''B.'' ser. ''Crocinae'' from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''crocinus'' ("rich orange"), in reference to the bright orange

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s. He also remarked that "the series is probably derived from the '' Orthostylis'', which can in hingsight be read as an admission of

paraphyly In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

. The placement and circumscription of ''B.'' ser. ''Crocinae'' in George's 1981 arrangement may be summarised as follows: :''Banksia'' :: ''B.'' subg. ''Banksia'' ::: ''B.'' sect. ''Banksia'' :::: ''B.'' ser. ''Salicinae'' (9 species) :::: ''B.'' ser. ''Grandes'' (2 species) :::: ''B.'' ser. ''Quercinae'' (3 species) :::: ''B.'' ser. ''Orthostylis'' (4 species) ::::''B.'' ser. ''Crocinae'' :::::'' B. prionotes'' :::::'' B. victoriae'' :::::''B. hookerana'' (now spelled '' B. hookeriana'') :::::'' B. burdettii'' :::: ''B.'' ser. ''Cyrtostylis'' (12 species) :::: ''B.'' ser. ''Prostratae'' (6 species) :::: ''B.'' ser. ''Tetragonae'' (3 species) :::: ''B.'' ser. ''Coccineae'' (1 species) ::: ''B.'' sect. ''Oncostylis'' (3 series, 21 species) :: ''B.'' subg. ''Isostylis'' (2 species)

Thiele and Ladiges 1996

In 1996,

and

undertook a

analysis of morphological characters of ''Banksia'', which yielded a

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

somewhat at odds with George's taxonomic arrangement. Their

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ...

included a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

consisting of the members of George's ''B.'' ser. ''Banksia'', together with the four members of ''B.'' ser. ''Crocinae'': Botanical Magazine 4906 BANKSIA Victoriæ

''B.'' ser. ''Crocinae'' was found to be monophyletic, but ''B.'' ser. ''Banksia'' was

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

with respect to it. To resolve this, Thiele and Ladiges abandoned ''B.'' ser. ''Crocinae'', transferring its four taxa into ''B.'' ser. ''Banksia''. They then divided ''B.'' ser. ''Banksia'', into two subseries, with the species belonging to George's ''B.'' ser. ''Crocinae'' endind up in ''B.'' subser. ''Cratistylis''.

George 1999

Thiele and Ladiges' arrangement remained current only until 1999, when George's treatment of the genus for the ''

Flora of Australia The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 30,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, ...

'' series of monographs was published. This was essentially a revision of George's 1981 arrangement, which took into account some of Thiele and Ladiges' data, but rejected their overall arrangement. With respect to ''B.'' ser. ''Cyrtostylis'', George's 1999 arrangement was identical to his 1981 arrangement, except that ''B. burdettii'' and ''B. victoriae'' were exchanged in

phyletic order Taxonomic sequence (also known as systematic, phyletic or taxonomic order) is a sequence followed in listing of taxa which aids ease of use and roughly reflects the evolutionary relationships among the taxa. Taxonomy, Taxonomic sequences can exist ...

Recent developments

Since 1998,

Austin Mast Austin R. Mast is a research botanist. Born in 1972, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2000. He is currently a professor within the Department of Biological Science at Florida State University (FSU), and has been dire ...

has been publishing results of ongoing cladistic analyses of

DNA sequence DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Th ...

data for the subtribe

Banksiinae ''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and fruiting "cones" and heads. ''Banksias'' range ...

. His analyses suggest a

that is rather different to previous taxonomic arrangements. ''B.'' ser. ''Crocinae'' is monophyletic or nearly so, occurring in a

polytomous An internal node of a phylogenetic tree is described as a polytomy or multifurcation if (i) it is in a rooted tree and is linked to three or more child subtrees or (ii) it is in an unrooted tree and is attached to four or more branches. A tr ...

clade with '' B. menziesii''; this clade is sister to a clade containing '' B. sceptrum'' (Sceptre Banksia) and '' B. ashbyi'' (Ashby's Banksia), and a clade containing ''

Banksia lindleyana ''Banksia lindleyana'', commonly known as the porcupine banksia, is a species of woody shrub in the genus ''Banksia'' of the family Proteaceae. It generally grows as a small shrub to 1 m (3 ft) high with long narrow serrated leaves, a ...

'' (Porcupine Banksia): Early in 2007 Mast and Thiele initiated a rearrangement of ''Banksia'' by transferring ''Dryandra'' into it, and publishing ''B.'' subg. ''Spathulatae'' for the species having spoon-shaped

cotyledon A cotyledon (; ; ; , gen. (), ) is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant, and is defined as "the embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or more of which are the first to appear from a germinating seed." The numb ...

s; in this way they also redefined the

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

''B.'' subg. ''Banksia''. All members of ''B.'' ser. ''Crocinae'' fall within Mast and Thiele's ''B.'' subg. ''Banksia'', but no further details have been published. Mast and Thiele have foreshadowed publishing a full arrangement once DNA sampling of ''Dryandra'' is complete.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Banksia ser. Crocinae ser. Crocinae Eudicots of Western Australia Plant series