Skip to main content

Service Notice

The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system, WAHerb, and DBCA’s flora taxonomic names application, WACensus, have been set to read-only mode since 1 October 2025. Recent taxonomic changes are not currently being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or the census. Due to the rapidly approaching holiday season and associated agency and facility soft closures, along with the substantial work involved in data mapping, cleaning, and verification, the migration to the new collection management software is not expected to occur before 1 March 2026, when a further update will be provided. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

The notice period started at 9:45 am on Friday, 12 December 2025 +08:00 and will end at 12:00 pm on Monday, 2 March 2026 +08:00.

Banksia speciosa R.Br.
Showy Banksia

Reference
Trans.Linn.Soc.London 10:210 (1810)
Conservation Code
Not threatened
Naturalised Status
Native to Western Australia
Name Status
Current

Non-lignotuberous shrub or tree, 1-6(-8) m high. Fl. yellow-green/cream, May to Jun or Aug to Dec or Jan. White, grey or yellow sand, laterite. Coastal sand dunes, sandplains.

Grazyna Paczkowska, Descriptive Catalogue, 1 August 1995
Image

Scientific Description

Trees or Shrubs, 1-6 m high; branchlets hairy. Leaves petiolate, alternate, 175-395 mm long, 15-30 mm wide, hairy; petiole 12-15 mm long; lamina flat, once divided, pinnately divided, shallowly divided or divided to the midrib, with 18-30 lobes on each side, the margins recurved or revolute. Inflorescences silky (with soft, shiny and appressed hairs), yellow, hairy. Perianth 40-48 mm long, hairy, all over, limb apex hirsute (with long, rough and coarse hairs), without awns; pistil 42-55 mm long, curved, style hairy. Follicles hairy, pilose, elliptic, 35-50 mm long. Flowers in January, May, June, July, August, September, October, November or December. Occurs in the South-west (SW) Botanical Province(s), in the Mallee (MAL) or Esperance Plains (ESP) IBRA subregion(s).

C. Hollister and K.R. Thiele, 19 January 2024

Distribution

IBRA Regions
Esperance Plains, Mallee.
IBRA Subregions
Eastern Mallee, Fitzgerald, Recherche.
IMCRA Regions
Eucla, WA South Coast.
Local Government Areas (LGAs)
Albany, Esperance, Ravensthorpe.