Banksia ashbyi
Banksia ashbyi, commonly known as Ashby's banksia, is a species of shrub or small tree that is endemic to Western Australia. It has smooth, grey bark, deeply serrated, hairy leaves and spikes of bright orange flowers.
Description
Banksia ashbyi is a shrub or small tree that typically grows to a height of and sometimes forms a lignotuber. It has smooth, grey bark and young stems that are hairy at first but become glabrous as they age. The leaves are broadly linear, long and wide and deeply serrated, the serrations triangular with sharply pointed tips. The flower spikes are bright orange, long and in diameter, each perianth long. Flowering occurs from February to May or July to December and the fruits are numerous smooth, elliptical to round follicles long, high and wide with a covering of short, soft hairs.Taxonomy and naming
Banksia ashbyi was first formally described in 1934 by Edmund Gilbert Baker in the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign. The specific epithet honours Edwin Ashby, one of the collectors of the type specimens.In 2008, Alex George described two subspecies in the journal Nuytsia and the names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census:
- Banksia ashbyi subsp. ashbyi grows as a tree up to in height, lacks a lignotuber and is fire-sensitive;
- Banksia ashbyi subsp. boreoscaia grows as a sprawling shrub no more than high and is lignotuberous.