Banksia vestita
Encyclopedia
Banksia vestita, commonly known as Summer Dryandra, is a shrub
endemic to Western Australia
. It was known as Dryandra vestita until 2007.
up to 3.5 centimetres across, typically containing thirty to forty flowers.
in the 1840s, from a location described simply as "south-western W.A." Richard Kippist
subsequently named and formally described the species, and Kippist's description was published in 1855 by Carl Meissner
in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Gardens Miscellany. It was placed in the genus Dryandra
, and given the specific name "vestita" from the Latin
vestitus ("clothed"), in reference to the hairy bracts that cover the lower parts of new shoots. Thus its name was for a time Dryandra vestita Kippist ex Meisn.
Otto Kuntze
transferred Dryandra to Josephia in 1890, republishing D. vestita as Josephia vestita (Kippist ex Meisn.) Kuntze, but his changes were not accepted by the wider scientific community. In 1999, Alex George
placed the species in Dryandra subgenus Dryandra, series Gymnocephalae.
Early in 2007, Austin Mast
and Kevin Thiele
transferred all Dryandra taxa to Banksia
. The current name for this species is therefore Banksia vestita (Kippist ex Meisn.) A.R.Mast & K.R.Thiele. As an interim measure, Mast and Thiele placed all but one Dryandra taxon in Banksia ser. Dryandra.
B. vestita grows in sand over laterite
, amongst heath
dominated by Proteaceae
and Myrtaceae
. It occurs from Eneabba
in the north to Lake Grace
in the south, thus ranging over five biogeographic
regions: Geraldton Sandplains
, Swan Coastal Plain
, Jarrah Forest
, Avon Wheatbelt
and Mallee
. This areas has annual average rainfall ranging from 350 to 600 millimetres, and between 66 and 116 days above 30°C. In southern parts of its distribution, the mean temperature range is 10.2–23.3°C; further north it is somewhat warmer, with a mean temperature range of 13.5–27.2°C.
, B. vestita has proteoid root
s, roots with dense clusters of short lateral rootlets that form a mat in the soil just below the leaf litter. These enhance solubilisation of nutrients, thus allowing nutrient uptake in low-nutrient soils such as the phosphorus
-deficient native soils of Australia. It has a lignotuber, so it is able to resprout from below the ground following a bushfire; bushfire also triggers the release of its seed, an adaptation known as serotiny
.
The species is fairly secure, and is not listed on Western Australia's Department of Environment and Conservation's Declared Rare and Priority Flora List.
An assessment of the potential impact of climate change
on this species found that its range is likely to contract by between 30% and 80% by 2080, depending on the severity of the change.
are still healthy and flowering at twenty years of age. It takes from six to seven weeks to germinate, with a germination success rate of around 70%. It requires a very well drained sandy soil in full sun. It tolerates drought well, is moderately frost-tolerant, and takes pruning well.
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 vestita until 2007.
Description
B. vestita grows as a shrub up to 1.5 metres high. It has hairy stems, and pinnatifid leaves eight to fifteen centimetres long and seven to thirteen millimetres wide, with four to twelve teeth on each side. Flowers are golden yellow, and occur in a dome-shaped inflorescenceInflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
up to 3.5 centimetres across, typically containing thirty to forty flowers.
Taxonomy
The species was first collected by James DrummondJames Drummond (botanist)
James Drummond was a botanist and naturalist who was an early settler in Western Australia.-Early life:...
in the 1840s, from a location described simply as "south-western W.A." Richard Kippist
Richard Kippist
Richard Kippist was an English botanist and librarian.Kippist was born in Stoke Newington, London, on 11 June 1812. He worked as a clerk in the office of Joseph Woods, F.L.S., architect, with whom he shared an interest in botany. He was employed by the Linnean Society from 1830, holding the...
subsequently named and formally described the species, and Kippist's description was published in 1855 by Carl Meissner
Carl Meissner
Carl Daniel Friedrich Meissner was a Swiss botanist.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 year career he was Professor of Botany at University of Basel...
in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Gardens Miscellany. It was placed in the genus 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...
, and given the specific name "vestita" 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...
vestitus ("clothed"), in reference to the hairy bracts that cover the lower parts of new shoots. Thus its name was for a time Dryandra vestita Kippist ex Meisn.
Otto Kuntze
Otto Kuntze
Otto Carl Ernst Kuntze was a German botanist.-Biography:Otto Kuntze was born in Leipzig.An apothecary in his early career, he published an essay entitled Pocket Fauna of Leipzig. Between 1863 and...
transferred Dryandra to Josephia in 1890, republishing D. vestita as Josephia vestita (Kippist ex Meisn.) Kuntze, but his changes were not accepted by the wider scientific community. In 1999, Alex George
Alex George
Alexander Segger George is a Western Australian botanist. He is the authority on the plant genera Banksia and Dryandra...
placed the species in Dryandra subgenus Dryandra, series Gymnocephalae.
Early in 2007, 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...
transferred all Dryandra taxa 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...
. The current name for this species is therefore Banksia vestita (Kippist ex Meisn.) A.R.Mast & K.R.Thiele. As an interim measure, Mast and Thiele placed all but one Dryandra taxon in Banksia ser. Dryandra.
Distribution and habitat
Laterite
Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock...
, amongst heath
Heath (habitat)
A heath or heathland is a dwarf-shrub habitat found on mainly low quality acidic soils, characterised by open, low growing woody vegetation, often dominated by plants of the Ericaceae. There are some clear differences between heath and moorland...
dominated by Proteaceae
Proteaceae
Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises about 80 genera with about 1600 species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae they make up the order Proteales. Well known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea,...
and Myrtaceae
Myrtaceae
The Myrtaceae or Myrtle family are a family of dicotyledon plants, placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, clove, guava, feijoa, allspice, and eucalyptus belong here. All species are woody, with essential oils, and flower parts in multiples of four or five...
. It occurs 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....
in the north to Lake Grace
Lake Grace, Western Australia
-Natural disasters:In late 2005 and early 2006, Lake Grace experienced two natural disasters. The first was a hail storm on 16 October 2005, which destroyed 500 hectares of wheat and barley crop and damaged a further 5,500 hectares, with some farmers reporting fields covered by up to...
in the south, thus ranging over five biogeographic
Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species , organisms, and ecosystems in space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities vary in a highly regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area...
regions: Geraldton Sandplains
Geraldton Sandplains
Geraldton Sandplains is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.It has two sub regions: -* Geraldton Hills sub region* Lesuer sub region...
, Swan Coastal Plain
Swan Coastal Plain
The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geological and biological zone, one of Western Australia's...
, Jarrah Forest
Jarrah Forest
Jarrah Forest is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia.-Location and description:The ecoregion stands on the 300m high Yilgarn block inland plateau and includes wooded valleys such as those of Western Australia's Murray River and the Helena River near...
, Avon Wheatbelt
Avon Wheatbelt
Avon Wheatbelt is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.-Further reading:...
and Mallee
Mallee (biogeographic region)
Mallee, also known as Roe Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia. Located between the Esperance Plains, Avon Wheatbelt and Coolgardie regions, it has a low, gently undulating topography, a semi-arid mediterranean climate, and extensive Eucalyptus mallee...
. This areas has annual average rainfall ranging from 350 to 600 millimetres, and between 66 and 116 days above 30°C. In southern parts of its distribution, the mean temperature range is 10.2–23.3°C; further north it is somewhat warmer, with a mean temperature range of 13.5–27.2°C.
Ecology
Like most other ProteaceaeProteaceae
Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises about 80 genera with about 1600 species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae they make up the order Proteales. Well known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea,...
, B. vestita has proteoid root
Proteoid root
Proteoid roots, also known as cluster roots, are plant roots that form clusters of closely spaced short lateral rootlets. They may form a two to five centimetre thick mat just beneath the leaf litter. They enhance nutrient uptake, possibly by chemically modifying the soil environment to improve...
s, roots with dense clusters of short lateral rootlets that form a mat in the soil just below the leaf litter. These enhance solubilisation of nutrients, thus allowing nutrient uptake in low-nutrient soils such as the phosphorus
Phosphorus
Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus as a mineral is almost always present in its maximally oxidized state, as inorganic phosphate rocks...
-deficient native soils of Australia. It has a lignotuber, so it is able to resprout from below the ground following a bushfire; bushfire also triggers the release of its seed, an adaptation known as serotiny
Serotiny
Serotiny is an ecological adaptation exhibited by some seed plants, in which seed release occurs in response to an environmental trigger, rather than spontaneously at seed maturation. The most common and best studied trigger is fire, and the term serotiny is often used to refer to this specific case...
.
The species is fairly secure, and is not listed on Western Australia's Department of Environment and Conservation's Declared Rare and Priority Flora List.
An assessment of the potential impact of climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
on this species found that its range is likely to contract by between 30% and 80% by 2080, depending on the severity of the change.
Cultivation
It is not often cultivated, as it is not considered a particularly attractive plant. In cultivation it grows slowly, but is long-lived; specimens at the Royal Botanic Gardens, CranbourneRoyal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne, is a division of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. It is located in the Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne, about 45 km south-east of the Melbourne city centre....
are still healthy and flowering at twenty years of age. It takes from six to seven weeks to germinate, with a germination success rate of around 70%. It requires a very well drained sandy soil in full sun. It tolerates drought well, is moderately frost-tolerant, and takes pruning well.