Banksia bipinnatifida
Encyclopedia
Banksia bipinnatifida is a shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 endemic to Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

.

Description

It grows as a prostrate shrub with an underground stem and a lignotuber
Lignotuber
A lignotuber is a starchy swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem by fire. The crown contains buds from which new stems may sprout, and a sufficient store of nutrients to support a period of growth in the absence of...

. It has few leaves; these are deeply lobes, and the lobes are themselves deeply lobed, giving the impression of a bipinnate
Pinnate
Pinnate is a term used to describe feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis in plant or animal structures, and comes from the Latin word pinna meaning "feather", "wing", or "fin". A similar term is pectinate, which refers to a comb-like arrangement of parts...

 leaf structure. Inflorescences are shades of pink, cream and yellow.

Distribution and habitat

It occurs along the Darling Plateau from Eneabba
Eneabba, Western Australia
Eneabba is a town on the Brand Highway located 278 km north of Perth, Western Australia.The area is famous for its spectacular display of wildflowers in the spring. It is also home to the Iluka Resources mineral sands facility....

 south to around Manjimup.

Taxonomy

Specimens of B. bipinnatifida were first collected by Charles Fraser
Charles Fraser
Charles Fraser may refer to:* Charles Fraser , botanist and explorer of Australia* Charles Fraser , ice hockey player* Charles Fraser , missionary with the Scottish Missionary Society to Russian Tatary...

 near the Swan River
Swan River (Western Australia)
The Swan River estuary flows through the city of Perth, in the south west of Western Australia. Its lower reaches are relatively wide and deep, with few constrictions, while the upper reaches are usually quite narrow and shallow....

 during the Stirling expedition of 1827. A formal description was published in 1830 by Robert Brown
Robert Brown (botanist)
Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...

, who named it Dryandra bipinnatifida; the specific epithet is a Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

ised form of the word "bipinnatifid", in reference to the bipinnate appearance of the leaves. In 2007, all Dryandra species were transferred to Banksia
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. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...

 by Austin Mast
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 an associate professor within the Department of Biological Science at Florida State University , and has been director of FSU's since August 2003.One of his...

 and Kevin Thiele
Kevin Thiele
Kevin R. Thiele is curator of the Western Australian Herbarium. His research interests include the systematics of the plant families Proteaceae, Rhamnaceae and Violaceae, and the conservation ecology of grassy woodland ecosystems...

; hence its current name is Banksia bipinnatifida (R.Br.) A.R.Mast & K.R.Thiele.

Two subspecies are recognised: B. b. var.bipinnatifida has larger, longer leaves with wider lobes, and a larger inflorescence, than B. a. var.multifida.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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