Banksia spinulosa Varieties |
When you are trying to identify a plant from a small piece of foliage, and are struggling to fit your specimen into some botanical scheme, take heart. Many others are in the same boat!
Reprinted with permission of the author, this is part of a longer work which graced the `Banksia Atlas' produced by the Australian Government Printing Service in 1987.
I know a spinulosa From the rarer paludosa And from marginata, aemula and all. I know it from dentata And from robur and serrata, But varieties can send me up the wall
It could be spinulosa, Perhaps collina's closer, Or maybe it is cunninghamii To add to the confusion There's now a new intrusion, The one they want to call new englandi.
I lose all my momentum When that leafy indumentum Could be tomentose, pubescent or hirsute. And if I look more fully, Is it villous or just woolly Or maybe there's a better word to suit.
And the edges of the leaves Are a factor that deceives When changes in one tree can be so great. A further complication Is if every variation Has a leaf which is entire to serrate.
Perhaps it's not dentated But rather more serrated, Apiculate, retuse or mucronate, And this one is a beaut, Recurved or revolute, Acute and just a bit emarginate.
I'll leave those varied edges To study shapes like wedges Or sickle-like or truncate turbinate. Now are the leaves mature Or just a little newer, Like juveniles with quite a different trait?
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