Banksia subulata, commonly known as Awled Honeypot, 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...

.

Taxonomy

It was first published as Dryandra subulata by Charles Gardner

Charles Gardner

Charles Austin Gardner was a Western Australian botanist.Born in Lancaster, England on 6 January 1896, he emigrated to Western Australia with his family in 1909....

 in 1964. In Alex George

Alex George

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

's 1996 arrangement

George's taxonomic arrangement of Dryandra

Alex George's taxonomic arrangement of Dryandra was the first modern-day arrangement of that taxon. First published in Nuytsia in 1996, it superseded the arrangement of George Bentham, which had stood for over a hundred years; it would later form the basis for George's 1999 treatment of Dryandra...

, this species was recognised as quite distinctive, being unusual in its long, unserrated leaves, its rigid awl-shaped floral leaves, and its round follicles. With no obvious relatives, the species was placed alone in a new series named Dryandra ser. Subulatae.

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; Dryandra subulata thus became Banksia subulata. Interestingly, Mast's analyses placed B. subulata not with the other Dryandra species sampled, but rather within a small clade of Banksia species with independently reduced inflorescence axes. For this reason, B. subulata was placed incertae sedis

Incertae sedis

, is a term used to define a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Uncertainty at specific taxonomic levels is attributed by , , and similar terms.-Examples:*The fossil plant Paradinandra suecica could not be assigned to any...

in B. subg. Banksia

Banksia subg. Banksia

Banksia subg. Banksia is a valid botanic name for a subgenus of Banksia. As an autonym, it necessarily contains the type species of Banksia, B. serrata . Within this constraint, however, there have been various circumscriptions.-Banksia verae:B. subg...

, rather than in B. ser. Dryandra with the other Dryandra species.

The transfer of Dryandra into Banksia necessitated the setting aside of George's infrageneric arrangement of Dryandra; thus D. ser. Subulatae is no longer current. Mast and Thiele have foreshadowed publishing a full arrangement once DNA sampling of Dryandra is complete.