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Monday, 13 February 2023

Banksia baxteri - Baxter's Banksia - Western Australia

 Hi everyone, I hope you and yours are doing well. 

Last week we took a short three night trip away to the forest regions a couple of hours south of where we live. More on that later. 

On our way home I bought a glorious bunch of Banksia baxteri - Baxter's Banksia - for a local shop in Balingup and grown by a local grower. Looking through my photos I am not sure I have seen these in full flower in the wild, though we have seen the heads starting to form nuts when we have been in the Fitzgerald National Park near Hopetoun in spring. 




It was named by Robert Brown after the collector, William Baxter, who gathered it in 1829 near King George Sound in Western Australia. 

A shrub up to 4 metres tall, it flowers along the south coast of Western Australia, during December to May, mainly January to March. 

The lemon coloured flowers grow on the end of the stems and the leaves form a sort of cup shape around the flower. 

It has the typical saw-tooth leaf of most banksias, though I learnt that the leaf of each Banksia type is slightly different, which is a handy identification tool. 

It grows from seed or cuttings and flowers within 3-4 years. I am thinking I need to grow one, they are so beautiful. 

Here are some spent examples we saw flowering in the Fitzgerald River National Park near Hopetoun and Tozers Bush Camp near Bremer Bay along the south coast last August. Your can see the nuts starting to form. 


That's it from me today. I hope you have enjoyed this little look at Baxters Banksia - Banksia baxteri 

Information from: Banksias - 2nd edition - by Kevin Collins, Kathy Collins & Alex George - Bloomings Books - and available from various booksellers 

You can learn a bit more about Banksias over on my blogpost - The iconic Australian Banksia
Banksias belong to the Proteaceae plant family. Characterised by their flower spikes and woody seed cones they range from ground hugging plants to 30 metre high trees. There are 78 known Banksias, 76 species in Australia, 62 of which are endemic to Western Australia, and 30 of these growing between Esperance and Walpole on our southern coast. In recent years the genus Dryandra has been incorporated into the genus Banksia, so the genus now totals 173 species.

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9 comments:

  1. Tom13 February 2023 at 21:43

    ...I love Banksia, I first saw them in Maui.They have a wonderful exotic look! Thanks for stopping by my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rostrose14 February 2023 at 06:09

    Oh WOW, that's a very decorative plant, dear Jill! Fascinating!
    ALL THE BEST from Austria!
    Traude
    ❤️
    https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2023/02/costa-rica-5-kapitel-la-paz-waterfall.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Angie14 February 2023 at 12:27

    Jill - the sawtooth leaves are fascinating. I must admit that the flowers reminded me of the Kracken from Pirates of the Caribbean, and the "petals" brought to mind sloth nails ... Thanks for visiting my blog!

    ReplyDelete
  4. EricaSta14 February 2023 at 23:24

    I can never read/ see enough about nature. I enjoyed reading. Therefore I search about this plant in WWW and found additional information here: https://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/trainees-2018/banksia-baxteri.html. It was very interesting for me.

    Thank you, Jill, being part again at
    MosaicMonday

    Have a good week.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous14 February 2023 at 23:53

    Oh wow! I've never seen anything remotely like that. It's stunning!
    Thanks for sharing at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2023/02/a-just-bit-more.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joanne 16 February 2023 at 07:13

    Oh wow; those are so neat. I love how even their leaves are so unique.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Michelle17 February 2023 at 23:29

    This is very beautiful and unique. A great combo, I think. Thank you for linking up.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rudbekia19 February 2023 at 17:32

    Wonderfull.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sallie (FullTime-Life)21 February 2023 at 02:45

    The banksia is a fascinating plant, different from anything I've ever seen. Another only in Australia discovery for me.

    ReplyDelete

I hope you have enjoyed your visit to my blog. Thank you for stopping by and for taking the time to comment. I read and very much appreciate every comment and love hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return.