''Banksia micrantha'' is a species of small 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 the south-west of Western Australia. It is a spreading bush with sharply-pointed linear leaves, pale yellow flower spikes and up to twenty-five follicles surrounded by the remains of the flowers. It was first formally described by Alex George in 1981.

Description

''Banksia micrantha'' grows as a spreading, bushy shrub up to high and 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 branches are often horizontal and underground at first. It has hairy stems and sharply-pointed, linear leaves long and wide on a petiole long. The edges of the leaves are tightly rolled under. The flowers are pale yellow and arranged in a spike long with hairy involucral bracts long at the base of the head. The

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 ...

is long and the

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'' ...

hooked and long. Up to twenty-five egg-shaped to elliptic follicles long high and wide form in each head, surrounded by the remains of the flowers.

Taxonomy

''Banksia micrantha'' had been recorded since 1938, but considered part of a broad '' B. sphaerocarpa'' complex, until officially described in 1981 by Alex George in his monograph '' The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)''. 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 ...

(''micrantha'') is from

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

words meaning "small" and "flower". George placed ''B. micrantha'' in ''Banksia'' subgenus ''

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 ...

'' because of its characteristic ''Banksia'' flower spike, section '' Oncostylis'' because its flowers have hooked styles, and series '' Abietinae'' because of its roughly spherical flower spike. Its closest relative is said to ''B. sphaerocarpa'' (fox banksia). A 1996

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

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 ...

confirmed ''B. micrantha'''s placement in series ''Abietinae'' alongside ''B. sphaerocarpa'', finding ''B. micrantha'' to be more closely related to ''B. sphaerocarpa'' var. ''sphaerocarpa'' and ''B. sphaerocarpa'' var. ''caesia'' than is ''B. sphaerocarpa'' var. ''dolichostyla''. As a result, this last variety was upgraded to species rank as ''B. dolichostyla'', and the four taxa were placed with '' B. grossa'' in a new subseries of ''Abietinae'', ''Banksia subser. Sphaerocarpae''. However, these changes were not accepted by Alex George in his authoritative 1999 contribution to 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.

Distribution and habitat

''Banksia micrantha'' grows in

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 occurs amongst heath on sand or sand over laterite on the gentle slopes of lateritic hills between Eneabba and

Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

Ecology

This banksia is fire tolerant, resprouting from its lignotuber but the follicles also remain closed until after a bushfire, when the follicles open to release the seed.

Conservation status

''Banksia micrantha'' is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and e ...

Use in horticulture

Seeds do not require any treatment, and take 19 to 21 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 micrantha micrantha Eudicots of Western Australia Endemic flora of Western Australia Plants described in 1981 Taxa named by Alex George