Banksia ornata

Species of shrub in the genus Banksia native to South Australia and Victoria

Speciesbox
|name = Desert banksia
|image = Banksia ornata3 Mt annan entrance apr 04 email. jpg
|image caption = Mount Annan Botanic Garden
|genus = Banksia
|parent = Banksia subg. Banksia
|species = ornata
|authority = F. Muell ex. Meisn. |synonyms ref = is a species of shrub that is endemic to south eastern continental Australia. The Ngarrindjeri people of the Lower Murray region in South Australia know it as yelakut. It has thin bark, serrated, narrow egg shaped leaves with the lower end towards the base, cream coloured flowers in a cylindrical spike, and later, up to fifty follicles in each spike, surrounded by the remains of the flowers.

Banksia ornata is a shrub that typically grows to a height of about but does not form a lignotuber. It has thin grey bark and stems that are hairy at first, later glabrous. The leaves are narrow egg shaped with the narrower end towards the base, or wedge shaped, long and wide on a petiole long. The flowers are cream coloured and arranged in a broadly cylindrical spike long and wide when the flowers open. There are hairy involucral bracts at the base of the spike but they fall off before the flowers open. The perianth is long and the pistil long and slightly curved. Flowering occurs in most months but mainly in winter and spring and there are up to fifty elliptic follicles long and wide in each spike, surrounded by the remains of the old flowers.

Banksia ornata was first formally described in 1854 by Carl Meissner from an unpublished description by Ferdinand von Mueller. The description was published in Linnaea: ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde. The specific epithet (ornata) is from the Latin word ornatus meaning "decorated", referring to the flowers and leaves.