Citation: L.f., Suppl. 15, 126 (1782).

Derivation: After Sir Joseph Banks, 1743-1820, a great patron of science who accompanied Cook's first voyage to 'New Holland'.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Banksias.

Description:
Shrubs with or without lignotubers or trees with fire-tolerant or fire-sensitive trunks; leaves coriaceous, simple, entire or variously divided.

Flowers bisexual, arranged in pairs subtended by 2 floral and 1 common bract, numerous and densely aggregated in cylindrical or spherical cone-like spikes which terminate young or short branchlets and possess a woody ovoid to elongated rhachis and a basal involucre of persistent or deciduous bracts; perianth regular to slightly irregular, tube straight or slightly curved; limb erect or recurved, splitting into segments at anthesis; anthers all perfect, shortly apiculate, on short filaments; hypogynous scales 4, small, membranous; ovary sessile, 2-ovulate, lateral; style terete, erect or curved, rarely (outside S.Aust.) sigmoid; pollen-presenter scarcely thicker than the style or narrowly fusiform, conical or turbinate; stigma median or oblique, usually in a groove.

Fruits few to many woody follicles combined in a woody infructescence (cone); seeds 2 per follicle, separated by a woody flat thin separator, obovate, with a terminal membranous wing.

Distribution:  71 species, 57 in south-western W.Aust., the rest in eastern Australia apart from one species extending from northern Australia into New Guinea. (A. S. George (1981) Nuytsia 3:239-474).

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Leaves on flowering branches entire or sometimes serrate; inflorescence 4-6 cm diam.; perianth 16-24 mm long; pistil 20-31 mm long; follicles when closed 2-4 mm wide across the valves; seed 9-15 mm long, wing entire	Banksia marginata 1.
1. Leaves serrate; inflorescence 7-9 cm diam.; perianth 30-35 mm long; pistil 35-38 mm long; follicles when closed 10-15 mm wide across the valves; seed 21-25 mm long, wing notched	Banksia ornata 2.

Author: Not yet available