Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Banksia ericifolia subsp. ericifolia

Flowering branches. Photographer Don Wood, Morton National Park

Cone. Photographer John Tann, Dharawal Nature Reserve, SW of Sydney

Shrub. Photographer John Tann, Botany Bay National Park, Sydney

Common name

Heath-leaved banksia

Family

Proteaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, and heath. Coast, ranges, and tablelands, north of Broulee.

Notes

Tree or shrub to 6 m high. Bark smooth, becoming corky, grey-brown. Branchlets with lenticels, hairy, becoming hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, crowded, 0.9–2 cm long, about 1 mm wide, upper surface green, becoming hairless, lower surface paler, hairy, margins entire and rolled down, with a small tooth at each side near the tip, tips squared off or notched, mucronate. Flower heads 70–220 mm long, of many flowers. Individual flowers golden-brown to yellow, often mauve towards the base, with 4 'petals' each 19–28 mm long, which split to the base when the flowers are fully open. Style hooked below the tips, gold to orange-red, remaining on mature cones. Cones 70–220 mm long. Flowers mainly April–August. Seeds with one wing.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Banksia~ericifolia (accessed 30 April 2021)