Banksia squarrosa


Banksia squarrosa, commonly known as pingle, is a species of prickly shrub that is endemic to Western Australia. It has linear to narrow lance-shaped leaves with up to ten sharply-pointed teeth on each side, yellow flowers in heads of about sixty and later, up to seven oblong to egg-shaped follicles in each head.

Description

Banksia squarrosa is a shrub that typically grows to a height of but does not form a lignotuber. It has sessile linear to narrow lance-shaped leaves that are long and wide with up to ten sharply-pointed, triangular teeth on each side. The flowers are yellow and are arranged in heads of between fifty and seventy with narrow triangular to linear involucral bracts long at the base of each head. The perianth is long and the pistil long and straight. Flowering occurs from June to November and the follicles are oblong to egg-shaped, long and more or less. Up to seven follicles form in each head.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first collected from near King George Sound in 1829 by William Baxter, and its description was published by Robert Brown in Supplementum primum Prodromi florae Novae Hollandiae as Dryandra squarrosa the following year.
In 1839 John Lindley described D. carduacea from specimens collected in the vicinity of the Swan River. In 1996, Alex George reduced D. carduacea to a synonym of D. squarrosa.
In 1996, George described two subspecies of D. squarrosa:
In 2007 Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele transferred all dryandras to the genus Banksia and renamed this species Banksia squarrosa and the two subspecies argillacea and squarrosa respectively. The names of the subspecies are accepted by the Australian Plant Census.

Distribution and habitat

Pingle is widely distributed in the south-west of Western Australia, occurring between Bindoon, the Whicher Range and Albany, growing in woodland and forest. Subspecies argillacea has a limited distribution near the western side of the Whicher Range. Subspecies squarrosa occurs throughout the species' range, except near the Whicher Range.

Conservation status

This banksia is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife, but subspecies argillacea is listed as "Threatened Flora " by the Department of Environment and Conservation