Category: Botany

Going out on a limb

In identifying a plant one is often making a guess. An educated guess is still a guess and sometimes there is no correct answer. Many of the banksias belong to groups known as complexes. Members of the complex are seen as separate species but they can also hybridise – meaning that they may have intermediate forms. Any one plant may have a variety of different features, sometimes typical, sometimes weirdly different. Sometimes the scientific name serves to obscure the identity of a plant, take Banksia oblogifolia, it is supposed to have oblong shaped leaves, where the tip is blunt and the base of the leaf is relatively broad. As it happens the leaf shape is variable, and the most reliable identifying feature is a rusty coloured felt that covers the midrib and young branches. The scientific name may endure even if it is misleading because the history of the name is seen as important. The type specimens of banksia oblongifolia may have had particularly oblong leaves, but specimens from further afield may not fit in the box.

banksia oblongifolia

Bus Stop banksias

Behind the artfully decorated Maianbar bus stop there are half a dozen species of banksia within a short walk. To identify them it is handy to learn their names. The information within the name will jog the memory each time you try to identify a plant. Plants may have a common name and a scientific name, both names can be useful. The common name is least reliable, it will vary from place to place and can be pretty vague. The scientific name will slot the plant into the taxonomic hierarchy which will tell you much about the structure of the plant and how it relates to others. The scientific name can change when academics get busy, but it will lead back to the first scientific description of the plant. The scientific name is a double-barrelled binomial usually composed of latin or greek roots or a nod to a dignitary, explorer or a botanist. All of this is useful information.

In the photo below is Banksia spinulosa, the hairpin banksia. The old fashioned hairpin is now an uncommon object and so the common name is possibly not very useful. The generic name Banksia was conjured up in 1782 by Carl Linnaeus the younger, son of daddy Carl Linnaeus the swedish naturalist who invented the taxonomic system. The first half of the binomial honours Joseph Banks who collected the original type specimen in 1770 on Cooks “voyage of discovery”. The second part of the name refers to spines on the leaf tip.

 

Banksia spinulosa
Am liking the common name now that I see what an old fashioned hairpin from 1850 looks like. It has points on the end that would give you a little jab like little spines, whereas the modern bobby pin is not nearly so fearsome. But all jabbing aside the rounded end of either style of pin resembles the bent anthers of the rows of flowers.

 

13-05-17-pic01

Bashing the big Banksias

Bansia ericafolia

May 15 2017
Tis the time of year when Banksia ericafolia is in full bloom. This shrub is common up on the heathland (the name erica refers to South African heath, which has a similar leaf shape). Other Banksias flower at different times providing honeyeaters with a reliable supply of food, but B, ericifolia is the most bountiful. Early settlers were shown how it was a source of bush tucker for aboriginal people. You can run your hand over the cone and lick off nectar or soak them in water for a sweet drink. So abundant is the nectar that you can see droplets glistening on the flowers and dripping from the branches, on the ground below there may be ants feeding. In the photo notice the damp patch at the base of the flower cone and droplets among the flowers.

 

The Beginning

This is the first post to the newsfeed. Fresh posts will displace older posts from the top of the page. It is also possible to make the home page static so that the visitor is met with an introduction, but more often this is included in a page titled About because returning visitors would prefer to see something fresh. To keep a post at the top of the page it can be made sticky and it will then cary the Featured title

Scroll down the home page and the posts will appear in sequential order, a quick way for people to catch up on content

To the left hand side are all the widgets and  there are many choose from. I have opted to stack the sidebar with links to static pages – including index of contents and a page introducing myself, and another page for references – Like the posts these pages can have room for comment by visitors, or not. Readers love to leave comments and often the sidebar is used to reward comments by listing latest comments. The engagement of readers is the main way of generating traffic.

All comment can be published immediately, or subject to approval.

The sidebar also include a tag cloud that ranks the tags by size according to the number of entries.

When exploring the site the reader can reset the journey by returning to the top of the home page called up by pressing the title of the sidebar; ecology of MAIANBAR

At the foot of posts are tags and categories, these can be used to draw up all pages on Botany (a category) or more specifically all pages on a particular plant or flower colour (a tag). All content contains  links that may lead to other outside content or to further expansion of text or images, usually such links are underlined, except in the case of an image where a note is given.

Enjoy