Banksia hewardiana

Banksia hewardiana is a species of openly branched shrub that is endemic to Western Australia. It has linear, serrated leaves with sharply pointed teeth, head of up to sixty lemon-yellow flowers and oblong follicles.

Description

Banksia hewardiana is an openly branched shrub that typically grows to a height of but does not form a lignotuber. The leaves are serrated, linear in outline, long and wide on a petiole up to long. There are between five and fifteen sharply pointed teeth on each side of the leaves. Groups of between thirty-five and sixty sweetly-scented flowers are borne in a head on a side branch about long. There are hairy, lance-shaped involucral bracts up to long at the base of the head. The flowers have a lemon-yellow perianth long and a cream-coloured pistil long and glabrous. Flowering occurs from July to November and the follicles are oblong to egg-shaped, long and sparsely hairy.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1856 by Carl Meissner who gave it the name Dryandra hewardiana and published the description in de Candolle's Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis from specimens collected by James Drummond. The specific epithet honours the English botanist Robert Heward. In 2007 Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele transferred all dryandras to the genus Banksia and renamed this species Banksia hewardiana.

Distribution and habitat

Banksia hewardiana grows in woodland and heath between Cataby, New Norcia and Moora.

Conservation status

This banksia is classified as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife.