Banksia victoriae

Woolly Orange Banksia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
Order:	Proteales
Family:	Proteaceae
Genus:	Banksia
Species:	B. victoriae
Binomial name
Banksia victoriae Meisn.

Banksia victoriae, commonly known as Woolly Orange Banksia, is a species of large shrub or small tree in the plant genus Banksia. It occurs in Western Australia between Northampton, Western Australia and Kalbarri, with the occasional plant further north as far as Zuytdorp Nature Reserve.

B. victoriae generally grows as a tall shrub, but older plants sometimes attain a tree habit, growing as high as seven metres. It has smooth grey back and densely hairy stems. Leaves are 15 to 30 centimetres (5.9 to 12 in) long and 2.5 to 4 centimetres (0.98 to 1.6 in) wide, with deep triangular lobes and woolly surfaces. Flowers occur in typical Banksia "flower spikes", inflorescences made up of hundreds of pairs of flowers densely packed in a spiral about a woody axis. B. victoriae's inflorescence is orange, 7 to 12 centimetres (2.8 to 4.7 in) long. After flowering, up to 30 follicles develop in the flower spike. These are usually concealed by withered flower parts, which persist on the spike for a long time.

The first known specimens of B. victoriae may have been seeds sent to England in the early 1830s. These seeds were distributed to a number of gardens, and by 1835 three gardens had successfully raised plants to flowering: the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the garden of George Percy, 5th Duke of Northumberland, and that of Henry Berens of Sidcup. In that year, the second of these was painted by Sarah Drake, and included as Plate 1728 in Edwards's Botanical Register. In the accompanying text, John Lindley identified the plant as B. speciosa (Showy Banksia), but commented "We found neither the whiteness of the under side of the leaves, nor the faintness of the veins, which are supposed to be characteristic of the species". Doubts were raised about the identity of the species in 1857, when Walter Hood Fitch painted B. victoriae based on a cut flower provided by David Moore of Glasnevin Botanical Garden. Fitch's painting appeared as Plate 4906 in Volume 82 of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, and was accompanied by the text: "There can, I think, be no doubt of its being the same with the B. speciosa above quoted in the Bot. Reg., but not the B. speciosa of Br. and Hook., Bot. Mag. t. 3052; and equally certain does it appear to be the B. Victoriæ of Meisner." Thus it was implied that 1835 plate was in fact B. victoriae, a suggestion that was supported by George Bentham in his treatment of the species in his 1870 Flora Australiensis.

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Wikipedia