Banksia idiogenes 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...

. It was known as Dryandra idiogenes until 2007.

Taxonomy

B. idiogenes was first discovered by Alex George

Alex George

Alexander Segger George is a Western Australian botanist. He is the authority on the plant genera Banksia and Dryandra...

 in 1986, and published by him in 1996 as Dryandra idiogenes, the specific epithet coming from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 idiogenes ("distinctive, peculiar"), in reference to this species' unusual involucrum

Involucrum

Involucrum is a layer of new bone growth outside existing bone seen in pyogenic osteomyelitis. It results from the stripping off of the periosteum by the accumulation of pus within the bone, and new bone growing from the periosteum....

, indumentum

Indumentum

The indumentum is a covering of fine hairs or bristles on a plant or insect.In plants, the indumentum types are:*pubescent*hirsute*pilose*villous*tomentose*stellate*scabrous*scurfy...

 and the strongly scented red and white flowers. Indeed, George considered the species to be so distinctive that he placed it alone in a new series that he named Dryandra ser. Inusitatae, from the 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...

 inusitatus ("rare, unusual").

Since 1998, 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...

 has been publishing results of ongoing cladistic analyses of DNA sequence

DNA sequence

The sequence or primary structure of a nucleic acid is the composition of atoms that make up the nucleic acid and the chemical bonds that bond those atoms. Because nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, are unbranched polymers, this specification is equivalent to specifying the sequence of...

 data for the subtribe Banksiinae. His analyses have provided compelling evidence of the paraphyly

Paraphyly

A group of taxa is said to be paraphyletic if the group consists of all the descendants of a hypothetical closest common ancestor minus one or more monophyletic groups of descendants...

 of 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...

with respect to Dryandra

Dryandra

Banksia ser. Dryandra is a series of 94 species of shrub to small tree in the plant genus Banksia. It was considered a separate genus named Dryandra until early 2007, when it was merged into Banksia on the basis of extensive molecular and morphological evidence that Banksia was paraphyletic with...

; that is, it seems that Dryandra arose from within the ranks of Banksia. Early in 2007, Mast 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...

 initiated a rearrangement of Banksia by sinking Dryandra into it as B. ser. Dryandra; Dryandra idiogenes thus became Banksia idiogenes. This transfer necessitated the setting aside of George's infrageneric arrangement of Dryandra; thus D. ser. Inusitatae is no longer current. Mast and Thiele have foreshadowed publishing a full arrangement once DNA sampling of Dryandra is complete.