Banksia lemanniana

Shrub of the family Proteaceae native to Western Australia

Speciesbox
|image = BlemannianabudWaite. jpg
|genus = Banksia
|display parents = 3
|parent = Banksia ser. Tetragonae
|species = lemanniana
|authority = Meisn. |synonyms ref = Lower growing plants that reach have been reported from coastal areas of Fitzgerald River National Park. before losing its hair and becoming glabrous (smooth) over two years. The stiff leaves are narrowly wedge shaped or more oval (cuneate to obovate) and measure in length by wide. The leaf margins are serrated, with many teeth measuring 0.1 to 0.3 cm each. The obovate seed is long and fairly flattened, and is composed of the wedge shaped seed body proper, measuring long and wide, and a papery wing. One side, termed the outer surface, is dark brown and wrinkled, while the other is black and smooth. Both surfaces sparkle slightly. The seeds are separated by a sturdy dark brown seed separator that is roughly the same shape as the seeds with a depression where the seed body sits adjacent to it in the follicle. Seedlings have cuneate (wedge shaped) cotyledons which measure long and wide. These are dull green, sometimes with a reddish tinge, and the margin of the wedge may be crenulated (lined with small teeth). The hypocotyl is red and measures high and wide. On returning home, Drummond sent a report of his explorations to The Inquirer, which published it on 14 April. In it, Drummond states "On Mount Barren I found a remarkable nodding yellow flowered Banksia, with leaves and a habit so like B. Caleyii, that it can only be distinguished by the cones and flowers, which are widely different." This is now recognised as a reference to B. lemanniana. The name Banksia lemanniana first appeared in print in 1852, being included in "A List of the Proteaceae Collected in South Western Australia by Mr James Drummond", written by Carl Meissner and published in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany. Four years later, Meissner published a formal species description in his chapter on the Proteaceae for A. P. de Candolle's Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis. Neither of Meissner's publications gives an etymology for the specific epithet, but it is now accepted as honouring the English botanist Charles Morgan Lemann. It has sometimes been misspelt "lehmanniana" after being mistakenly attributed to the German botanist Johann Lehmann. Common names include yellow lantern banksia and Lemann's banksia. Meissner placed B. lemanniana in series Quercinae in his 1856 arrangement of the genus on account of its strongly dentate, cuneate to obovate leaves. In 1891, Otto Kuntze, in his Revisio Generum Plantarum, rejected the generic name Banksia L. f., on the grounds that the name Banksia had previously been published in 1776 as Banksia J. R. Forst & G. Forst, referring to the genus now known as Pimelea. Kuntze proposed Sirmuellera as an alternative, referring to this species as Sirmuellera lemanniana. This application of the principle of priority was largely ignored by Kuntze's contemporaries, and Banksia L. f. was formally conserved and Sirmuellera rejected in 1940. In his 1981 monograph The genus Banksia L. f. (Proteaceae), Alex George placed B. lemanniana in B. subg. Banksia because its inflorescence is a typical Banksia flower spike; in B. sect. Banksia because of its straight styles. He made it the type species of B. ser. Tetragonae, the members of which are defined by their pendulous inflorescences and tetragonal limbs. He considered it closely related to B. aculeata and B. caleyi, which are smaller, more compact, shrubs with red or pink tinged inflorescences. B. lemannianas placement in Thiele and Ladiges' arrangement may be summarised as follows:

Early in 2007 Mast and Thiele initiated a rearrangement by transferring Dryandra to Banksia, and publishing B. subg. Spathulatae for the species having spoon shaped cotyledons; in this way they also redefined the autonym B. subg. Banksia. They foreshadowed publishing a full arrangement once DNA sampling of Dryandra was complete; in the meantime, if Mast and Thiele's nomenclatural changes are taken as an interim arrangement, then B. lemanniana is placed in B. subg. Banksia.

Banksia lemanniana is found near the southern coast of Western Australia, most of its population protected within Fitzgerald River National Park. Outside the park, it reaches the Ravensthorpe Range to the northeast and the rabbit proof fence to the east, as well as isolated populations westwards as far as Pallinup estuary.

A variety of pollinators have been recorded visiting the flower spikes, including New Holland honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae), red wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata), native and European honey bees, wasps and ants. Banksia lemanniana is killed by bushfire and regenerates from seed. It is unclear how quickly seedlings take to reach flowering in the wild, but cultivated records suggest around five or six years. Banksia lemanniana has been shown to have a low to moderate susceptibility to dieback from the soil borne water mould Phytophthora cinnamomi, unlike many Western Australian banksias. A study on cultivated plants in South Australia inoculated with P. cinnamomi and P. citricola found B. lemanniana to have an overall low susceptibility overall to both organisms, although 2 to 3 week old seedlings appeared more vulnerable than 10 month old ones.

One of the easier Western species to grow, Banksia lemanniana has some horticultural potential in its attractive chocolate buds, green yellow hanging flower spikes and large grey spikes with prominent follicles. It generally grows quite quickly, but nevertheless takes five to six years to flower from seed. It prefers a more alkaline rocky or sandy soil, with a nominal pH range from 6 to 7.5. It favours a sunny position and good drainage, and has been successfully cultivated in more humid climates on Australia's east coast.