Banksieaeidites is a plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 that encompasses fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 pollen

Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...

 that can be attributed to the 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,...

 tribe Banksieae, but cannot be attributed to a genus.

It was published in 1950 by Isabel Cookson and Suzanna Duigan, on the grounds that the two then-members of Banksieae, 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...

and 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...

, cannot be distinguished by the pollen.

Since then, Banksia and Dryandra have been further grouped into subtribe Banksiinae, and another subtribe, Musgraveinae, erected to contain two new genera. The correct interpretation for Banksieaeidites does not appear to have been clarified since then, but treatment of the analogous genus for fossil leaves, Banksieaephyllum

Banksieaephyllum

Banksieaephyllum is a plant genus that encompasses organically preserved fossil leaves that can be attributed to the Proteaceae tribe Banksieae, but cannot be attributed to a genus....

, is no longer consistent, with some botanists holding that it is still defined in terms of Banksieae, while others now treat it as defined in terms of Banksiinae. Dryandra has now been transferred into Banksia. Although as yet undetermined, the latter interpretation would result in Banksieaeidites becoming a nomenclatural synonym of Banksia.

Species include:

• Banksieaeidites arcuatus
• Banksieaeidites elongatus
• Banksieaeidites minimus

See also

• Banksieaephyllum
  Banksieaephyllum
  Banksieaephyllum is a plant genus that encompasses organically preserved fossil leaves that can be attributed to the Proteaceae tribe Banksieae, but cannot be attributed to a genus....
  
  , a genus for specimens of organically preserved fossil leaves that can be attributed to subtribe Banksiinae, but not to a genus.
• Banksieaeformis, a genus for fossil leaves with the same architecture as Banksieaephyllum, but without organic detail; like Banksieaephyllum, these can be attributed to subtribe Banksiinae, but not to a genus.