Banksia ericifolia is a species of woody shrub of the family Proteaceae native to Australia. It grows in two separate regions of Central and Northern New South Wales east of the Great Dividing Range. It is well known for its orange or red autumn inflorescences, which contrast with its green fine-leaved heath-like foliage. The species was one of the original Banksia species collected by Joseph Banks around Botany Bay in 1770.
About Banksia ericifolia in brief
Banksia ericifolia is a species of woody shrub of the family Proteaceae native to Australia. It grows in two separate regions of Central and Northern New South Wales east of the Great Dividing Range. It is well known for its orange or red autumn inflorescences, which contrast with its green fine-leaved heath-like foliage. The species was one of the original Banksia species collected by Joseph Banks around Botany Bay in 1770 and was named by Carl Linnaeus the Younger in 1782. It has split into two subspecies: Banksia. ericfolia subspecies eric ifolia of the Sydney region and Banksia ericifolia subspecies macrantha of the New. South Wales Far North Coast which was recognized in 1996. The shrub grows as a large shrub up to 6 metres in height, though often smaller, around 1–2 metres, in exposed places such as coastal or mountain heathlands. The linear dark green leaves are small and narrow, 9–20 mm long and up to 1 mm wide, generally with two small teeth at the tips. The spikes are red or gold in overall colour, with styles golden, orange, orange-red or burgundy. Each individual flower consists of a tubular perianth made up of four fused tepals, and one long wiry style. Some plants produce multiple flower spikes, possibly of varying sizes, from a single point of origin.
Compact dwarf cultivars such as Banksia ‘Little Eric’ have become more popular in recent years with the trend toward smaller gardens. It responds to fire by seeding, the parent plant being killed. As plants take several years to flower in the wild, it is very sensitive to too-frequent burns and has been eliminated in some areas where these occur. With time and the production of more cones with seed-containing follicles, however, plants can store up to 16,500 seeds at eight years of age. However, the species was not published until April 1782, when Carolus Linnaus the Younger described the species in his Supplement to the Plantarum Plantarium. Thus the specific name erefica, from the Latin erica, meaning ‘heather’ and folium, was later adjusted to ‘banksia’ The species has remained unchanged as a distinctive taxonomic concept since publication, although the concept has remained largely unchanged as well as the name for the species is Banksia fericifolia L fica, or ‘l lantern banksia’, meaning ‘luminous banksia’ or’lantern’ L f fica is a fern with the initials f ficium, ficia ficolia, or ficio, meaning ‘leaf’ and ‘ficio’ ‘L lantern Banksia’ is a shrub that can reach 6 m high and wide, though usually half that size.
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This page is based on the article Banksia ericifolia published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
