Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Banksia aemula

Mature flower head. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Immature flower heads. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Cone with maturing seed. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Shrub. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, north of Coffs Harbour

Common name

Wallum banksia

Family

Proteaceae

Where found

Woodland and tall shrubland on consolidated sand dunes and  sandy flats which are sometimes seasonally waterlogged. Coastal north from the Sydney area.

Notes

Tree or shrub to 8 m high. Bark warty, slightly friable, brownish. Branchlets hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, 3–20 cm long, 5–30 mm wide, margins toothed, both surfaces rusty-hairy, eventually becoming hairless, tips squared off to notched with a mucro, Flower heads 40–200 mm long, of many flowers. Individual flowers pale yellow to greenish cream, with 4 'petals' each 35–45 mm long, which split to the base when the flowers are fully open. Style greenish, slightly curved, remaining on mature cones. Cones 40–200 mm long. Flowering: mainly March–June. Seeds with one wing.

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