''Banksia'' subser. ''Leptophyllae'' is a valid

botanic name 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 ...

for a

subseries In botany and plant taxonomy, a series is a subdivision of a genus, a taxonomic rank below that of section (and subsection) but above that of species. Sections and/or series are typically used to help organize very large genera, which may have ...

of ''

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 ...

''. It was published 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 ...

in 1996, but discarded by Alex George in 1999.

Cladistics

The name came about after a

cladistic analysis 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 chara ...

of ''Banksia'' by Thiele 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 ...

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 the accepted taxonomic arrangement, prompting them to publish a revised 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 ...

contained a clade that corresponded closely to George's ''B.'' ser. ''Abietinae''. This clade resolved into four subclades, for which Thiele published four corresponding subseries. ''B.'' subser. ''Leptophyllae'' was based upon the fourth subclade:

Taxonomy

''B.'' subser. ''Leptophyllae'' was formally defined as containing those taxa with "indurated and spinescent common bracts on the infructescence axes, and densely arachnose seedling stems." The epithet ''Leptophyllae'' is taken from the specific epithet of the type species, '' B. leptophylla'' (slender-leaved banksia), from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''leptos'' ("fine, slender") and ''phyllon'' (leaf). It was selected as appropriate for the subseries, the species of which have long leaves that are narrower than most other species in ''B.'' ser. ''Abietinae''. The placement and circumscription of ''B.'' subser. ''Leptophyllae'' in Thiele and Ladiges' arrangement may be summarised as follows: :''

'' :: ''B.'' subg. ''Isostylis'' (3 species) ::'' B. elegans'' (

incertae sedis ' () or ''problematica'' is a term used for a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

) :: ''B.'' subg. ''Banksia'' ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Tetragonae'' (4 species) ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Lindleyanae'' (1 species) ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Banksia'' (2 subseries, 12 species) :::'' B. baueri'' (incertae sedis) :::'' B. lullfitzii'' (incertae sedis) :::'' B. attenuata'' (incertae sedis) :::'' B. ashbyi'' (incertae sedis) :::'' B. coccinea'' (incertae sedis) ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Prostratae'' (8 species) ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Cyrtostylis'' (4 species) ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Ochraceae'' (3 species, 2 subspecies) ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Grandes'' (2 species) ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Salicinae'' (2 subseries, 11 species, 4 subspecies) ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Spicigerae'' (3 subseries, 7 species, 6 varieties) ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Quercinae'' (2 species) ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Dryandroideae'' (1 species) ::: ''B.'' ser. ''Abietinae'' :::: ''B.'' subser. ''Nutantes'' (1 species, 2 varieties) :::: ''B.'' subser. ''Sphaerocarpae'' (4 species, 2 varieties) ::::''B.'' subser. ''Leptophyllae'' :::::'' B. telmatiaea'' :::::'' B. scabrella'' :::::'' B. leptophylla'' :::::: ''B. leptophylla'' var. ''melletica'' :::::: ''B. leptophylla'' var. ''leptophylla'' :::::'' B. lanata'' :::: ''B.'' subser. ''Longistyles'' (6 species, 2 varieties) 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. ''B.'' subser. ''Leptophyllae'' was discarded, as were the other three subseries of ''B.'' ser. ''Abietinae''.

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 from previous taxonomic arrangements. With respect to ''B.'' subser. ''Leptophyllae'', Mast's results accord closely with the arrangement of Thiele and Ladiges, inferring 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 corresponding exactly with Thiele and Ladiges' subseries, with '' B. grossa'' (Coarse Banksia) as the nearest

outgroup Outgroup may refer to: * Outgroup (cladistics), an evolutionary-history concept * Outgroup (sociology), a social group {{disambig ...

: 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. All members of subseries ''Leptophyllae'' fall within Mast and Thiele's ''B.'' subg. ''Spathulatae'', but nothing further has been published. Mast and Thiele have foreshadowed publishing a full arrangement once DNA sampling of ''Dryandra'' is complete.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banksia subser. Leptophyllae subser. Leptophyllae Eudicots of Western Australia Plant subseries