''Banksia'' sect. ''Eubanksia'' is an obsolete section 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 ...

''. There have been two circumscriptions, one of which is synonymous with the recently abandoned ''B.'' subg. ''Banksia'' ''

sensu ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

'' Alex George, the other having no modern equivalent. The name ''Eubanksia'' was first published without rank by

Stephan Endlicher Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher also known as Endlicher István László (24 June 1804, Bratislava (Pozsony) – 28 March 1849, Vienna) was an Austrian botanist, numismatist and Sinologist. He was a director of the Botanical Garden of Vienna. Bio ...

in 1847. He published it as a replacement name for Robert Brown's ''

Banksia verae ''Banksia'' subg. ''Banksia'' is a valid botanic name for a subgenus of ''Banksia''. As an autonym (botany), autonym, it necessarily contains the type species of ''Banksia'', ''Banksia serrata, B. serrata'' (Saw Banksia). Within this constr ...

'', the "true banksias". In Brown's taxonomic arrangement of ''Banksia'', ''Banksia verae'' was defined as comprising all species with a typical ''Banksia'' flower spike, and thus contained all known species except '' B. ilicifolia'' (Holly-leaved Banksia), which was unusual in having domed flower heads. Brown's circumscription of ''Banksia verae'' was retained for ''Eubanksia'' by Endlicher, and again by

Carl Meissner Carl Daniel Friedrich Meissner (1 November 1800 – 2 May 1874) was a Swiss botanist. Biography Born in Bern, Switzerland on 1 November 1800, he was christened Meisner but later changed the spelling of his name to Meissner. For most of his 40 ...

, who gave ''Eubanksia'' sectional rank in his 1856 arrangement. Meissner divided ''B.'' sect. ''Eubanksia'' into four series, on the basis of leaf characters: ''B.'' ser. ''Abietinae'', ''B.'' ser. ''Salicinae'', ''B.'' ser. ''Quercinae'' and ''B.'' ser. ''Dryandroideae''.

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studi ...

published a new arrangement of ''Banksia'' in 1870, dividing ''Banksia'' into five sections. He appropriated ''B.'' sect. ''Eubanksia'' for a section containing only '' B. marginata'' (Silver Banksia), '' B. dentata'' (Tropical Banksia) and '' B. integrifolia'' (Coast Banksia), claiming that "the three species here included... are so closely allied and so frequently connected by intermediates, that they might almost be considered as varieties of a single one." Thus Bentham's circumscription was completely unrelated to that of Brown, Endlicher and Meissner. ''B.'' sect. ''Eubanksia'' fell into disuse in 1981, when Alex George published his arrangement in '' The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)''. He reverted to the circumscription of Brown, Endlicher and Meissner, but by this time the rules of botanical nomenclature had been formalised in such a way that Brown's ''Banksia verae'' had to be given 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''; thus Endlicher's unranked ''Eubanksia'' and Meissner's section ''Eubanksia'' are now considered nomenclatural synonyms of ''B.'' subg. ''Banksia'' ''sensu'' George. This circumscription was retained in Thiele and Ladiges' 1996 arrangement, and in George's 1999 arrangement, but was finally abandoned in 2007 with the publication of ''B.'' subg. ''Banksia'' sensu

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 ...

and

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 ...

. On the other hand, Bentham's circumscription of ''B.'' sect. ''Eubanksia'' has no modern equivalent. The three species placed in that section by Bentham were all placed by George in ''B.'' ser. ''Salicinae'', and retained in that series under Thiele and Ladiges' 1996 arrangement. In both arrangements, however, the series contains a number of other species, and Bentham's three species are not considered particularly closely related.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banksia sect. Eubanksia sect. Eubanksia Plant sections Historically recognized angiosperm taxa