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 studie ...

's taxonomic arrangement of ''

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

'' was published in 1870, in Volume 5 of Bentham's ''

Flora Australiensis ''Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory'', more commonly referred to as ''Flora Australiensis'', and also known by its standard abbreviation ''Fl. Austral.'', is a seven-volume Flora of Australia published b ...

''. A substantial improvement on the previous arrangement, it would stand for over a century. It was eventually replaced by Alex George's 1981 arrangement, published in his classic monograph ''

The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae) "The genus ''Banksia'' L.f. (Proteaceae)" is a 1981 monograph by Alex George (botanist), Alex George on the taxonomy of Banksia, taxonomy of the plant genus ''Banksia''. Published by the Western Australian Herbarium as ''Nuytsia (journal), Nuyt ...

''.

Background

''Banksia'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of around 80

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in the

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

family

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family (biology), family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genus, genera with about 1,660 known species. Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentr ...

. An iconic

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n wildflower and popular

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

, they are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones". They grow in forms varying from prostrate woody

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s to trees up to 35 metres tall, and occur in all but the most

arid Aridity is the condition of geographical regions which make up approximately 43% of total global available land area, characterized by low annual precipitation, increased temperatures, and limited water availability.Perez-Aguilar, L. Y., Plata ...

areas of Australia. As heavy producers of

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

, they are important sources of food for nectariferous animals such as

honeyeater The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Gui ...

s and

honey possum The honey possum or noolbenger (''Tarsipes rostratus''), is a tiny species of marsupial that feeds on the nectar and pollen of a diverse range of flowering plants. Found only in southwest Australia, it is an important pollinator for such plants ...

, and they are of economic importance to the nursery and

cut flower Cut flowers are flowers and flower buds (often with some stem and leaf) that have been cut from the plant bearing it. It is removed from the plant for decorative use. Cut greens are leaves with or without stems added to the cut flowers for con ...

industries. However they are seriously threatened by a number of processes including land clearing, frequent burning, and disease, and a number of species are rare and

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

. Specimens of ''Banksia'' were first collected by Sir

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...

and Dr

Daniel Solander Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander (19 February 1733 – 13 May 1782) was a Sweden, Swedish naturalist and an Apostles of Linnaeus, apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university-educated scientist to set foot o ...

, naturalists on HM Bark ''Endeavour'' during Lieutenant (later Captain)

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

's 1770 voyage to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. By the time of Bentham's arrangement, 60 species were recognised. The most recent taxonomic arrangement, which had stood since 1856, was that of

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 ...

. Meissner's arrangement divided the genus into two sections, with '' B. ilicifolia'' placed alone in section ''Isostylis'' because of its unusual dome-shaped inflorescences, and all other species in section ''Eubanksia''. The latter section was divided into four series, which were based on leaf properties and were highly heterogeneous.

Bentham's arrangement

As Bentham never visited Australia, he only had access to preserved specimens. Thus he was unable to distinguish between some similar pairs of species, and so reduced the number of species to 46. He retained ''Isostylis'', but replaced Meissner's four series by four sections based on leaf, style and

pollen-presenter A pollen-presenter is an area on the tip of the style in flowers of plants of the family Proteaceae on which the anthers release their pollen prior to anthesis. To ensure pollination, the style grows during anthesis, sticking out the pollen-presen ...

characters. Two of these, ''Oncostylis'' and ''Eubanksia'', were reasonably well-defined and homogeneous; section ''Orthostylis'' was somewhat heterogeneous; section ''Cyrtostylis'' was erected to contain the species that did not belong in the other sections, and was therefore highly heterogeneous. George Bentham's 1870 taxonomic arrangement of ''Banksia'' may be summarised as follows: :''

'' :: ''B.'' sect. ''Oncostylis'' :::'' B. pulchella'' :::'' B. Meissneri'' :::'' B. nutans'' :::'' B. sphærocarpa'' ::::''B. sphaerocarpa'' var. ''glabrescens'' (now '' B. incana'') ::::''B. sphaerocarpa'' var. ''latifolia'' (now ''B. sphaerocarpa'' var. ''sphaerocarpa'') :::'' B. tricuspis'' :::'' B. occidentalis'' :::'' B. littoralis'' :::'' B. ericifolia'' :::'' B. spinulosa'' :::''B. collina'' (now ''B. spinulosa'' var. ''collina'') :::'' B. verticillata'' :::'' B. dryandroides'' :::'' B. Brownii'' :: ''B.'' sect. ''Cyrtostylis'' :::'' B. attenuata'' :::'' B. media'' :::'' B. Solandri'' :::'' B. Goodii'' :::'' B. petiolaris'' :::'' B. repens'' :::''B. prostrata'' (now '' B. gardneri'') :::'' B. grandis'' :::'' B. quercifolia'' ::::''B. quercifolia'' var. ''integrifolia'' (now '' B. oreophila'') :::'' B. Baueri'' :: ''B.'' sect. ''Eubanksia'' :::'' B. marginata'' :::'' B. integrifolia'' :::'' B. dentata'' :: ''B.'' sect. ''Orthostylis'' :::''B. latifolia'' (now '' B. robur'') :::'' B. serrata'' :::'' B. æmula'' :::'' B. ornata'' :::'' B. coccinea'' :::'' B. sceptrum'' :::'' B. Menziesii'' :::'' B. lævigata'' :::'' B. Hookeriana'' :::'' B. prionotes'' :::'' B. Victoriæ'' :::'' B. speciosa'' :::'' B. Baxteri'' :::''B. marcescens'' (now '' B. praemorsa'') :::'' B. Lemanniana'' :::'' B. Caleyi'' :::'' B. Lindleyana'' :::'' B. elegans'' :::'' B. Candolleana'' :: ''B.'' sect. ''Isostylis'' :::'' B. ilicifolia'' ::::''B. ilicifolia'' var. ''integrifolia'' (now '' B. ilicifolia'')

Results

Despite some shortcomings, Bentham's arrangement remained current for over a hundred years. It was only superseded in 1981, with the publication of Alex George's arrangement in his landmark monograph ''

''. Many of the species that Bentham discarded have now been reinstated. Section ''Isostylis'' is now maintained at subgenus level as ''Banksia'' subg. ''Isostylis''. Sections ''Oncostylis'' and ''Eubanksia'' are still maintained, but ''Eubanksia'' has been renamed ''Banksia'' sect. ''Banksia'' in accordance with the

International Code of Botanical Nomenclature The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN or ICNafp) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all tho ...

. The other sections are no longer maintained.

References

{{reflist Taxonomy of Banksia George Bentham