Timeline of Banksia

Summary

This is a timeline of developments in knowledge and understanding of the Australian plant genus Banksia:

Banksia serrata as painted by Sydney Parkinson during the voyage on which the genus was first collected.

18th century edit

 
Joseph Banks
 
The genus Banksia was first published by Carolus Linnaeus the Younger in his 1782 Supplementum Plantarum.
 
B. praemorsa was one of the first two Banksia species collected from Western Australia.

19th century edit

 
Robert Brown was a key figure in the collection and study of Banksia in the 19th century.
 
B.prionotes
 
B. petiolaris
 
George Bentham's 1870 arrangement of Banksia would stand for over 100 years.
 
Stirling Ranges, Western Australia
  • 1869 — Mueller publishes B. oreophila as B. quercifolia var. integrifolia; this would later be promoted to species rank, forcing a rename.
  • 1870George Bentham publishes a new arrangement for Banksia in his Flora Australiensis. No new species are published; in fact Bentham reduces the number of species from 60 to 46. Bentham's classification uses two subgenera and four sections, and would stand for over 100 years.
  • 1891 - Otto Kuntze challenges Banksia L.f. on grounds of precedence of Banksia J.R.Forst & G.Forst, proposing the name Sirmuellera Kuntze in place of Banksia L.f. The challenge fails.
  • 17 September 1891Richard Helms collects the first specimen of B. elderiana (Swordfish Banksia) in the Great Victoria Desert.
  • 1896 — Mueller and Ralph Tate publish B. elderiana.

20th century edit

 
In 1981, Alex George published The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae), the first thorough revision of the genus for over a century.
 
The Banksia Atlas project greatly increased knowledge of the distribution, habitat and diversity of Banksia.

21st century edit

 
B. rosserae, the most recently discovered and described Banksia species.
  • 2000 — Rosser's project to paint every Banksia species concludes with the publication of the third and final volume of her monograph The Banksias.
  • 2000B. rosserae is discovered. Accounts of its discovery differ, with some attributing Ann Pilkington, and others John Cullen.
  • 2002 — Peter Olde and Neil Marriott publish B. rosserae.
  • 2002 and 2005Austin Mast and co-authors publish cladistic analyses of genetic data, that suggest two large Banksia clades, which they name "/Cryptostomata" ("hidden stomates") and "/Phanerostomata" ("visible stomates"). Their results also strongly suggest that Banksia is polyphyletic with Dryandra.
  • 2007 Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele transfer Dryandra to Banksia and publish B. subg. Spathulatae for the "/Phanerostomata", thereby redefining B. subg. Banksia as containing the "/Cryptostomata".

References edit

  1. ^ a b Banksias by Kevin Collins, Kath Collins and Alex George published 2008, ISBN 978-1-876473-58-7
  • George, A. S. (1984). The Banksia Book. Kenthurst, New South Wales: Kangaroo Press in association with The Society For Growing Australian Plants — NSW. ISBN 0-86417-143-9.