White Banksia

Description:

Beautiful banksia flowers at various stages of development. Unfortunately, I'm unable to give an absolutely positive species ID without further inspection of the specimens, particularly their leaf structure, but I would suggest the most likely candidate for this region is White Banksia (B. integrifolia ssp. compar). It is known to occur in the high altitude national parks of Girraween, Bald Rock, and Boonoo Boonoo. However, another subspecies Coast Banksia (B. integrifolia ssp. integrifolia) looks exactly the same, but to the best of my knowledge, it occurs closer to coastal regions. The two subspecies are distinguishable by their leaves, which are larger and glossy with wavy margins on B. integrifolia ssp. compar. I'll stick with White Banksia for the moment. It's the subspecies that has been documented as occurring in this region, whereas I have found no local reference at all for Coast Banksia.

Habitat:

Granite soils, extreme summer and winter temperatures, and high altitude at Boonoo Boonoo National Park, in the New England Tablelands region of NSW near the township of Tenterfield. These banksias were found beside a section of the river called Platypus Hole. All pristine, native vegetation in this area.

Notes:

The last image makes me laugh. It's just a bad hair day. May Gibbs story - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snugglepot...