FOTD – April 5 – Beautiful Banksias – Part 11: Adult to Death – and Beyond?

The Acorn Banksia (Banksia prionotes), sometimes just known as Orange Banksia, for the most obvious of reasons, is in full flower in native bushland and on some roadside verges and divides in my area at the moment and i caught some beauties in various stages of flowering earlier this week. Here are the ‘later’ stages of this wonderful flower’s life-cycle. 🙂

For Part 1: Birth to Juvenile go here.

This particular species of banksia (which are related to the proteas) is native to the SW of my state and flowers in Autumn to Winter. The flowers average some 10 inches (25cm) in height.

(Click on a pic to open in a new window and click again to see enlarged detail!) 🙂This is why they are called Orange Banksias… (They are literally huge skyscraper warehouses of nectar for the ants that adore them! Click pick to see them magnified, a large screen is best!) 🙂

And this is why they are called Acorn Banksias! (The name banksia comes from Sir Joseph Banks who sailed with Captain Cook as his botanist on the HMS Endeavour when they landed in Australia in 1770.) 🙂

A close up of a top view of the banksia flower.

Some types of banksia lose their ‘pin’ flowers when they die, leaving a hard, furry to the touch, ‘cone’ that can produce a few seed pods. This species keeps it’s flowers which turn hard and stick-like. The seed pods are the oyster looking things coming out of the cone, one of which had cracked open here.

In the end of life, new life is reborn! Mother Banksia returns to Baby Banksia in their nest! 😉 🙂

The Orange (Acorn) Banksia!  Notice the ‘nest of crocodiles’ growing bottom right – beware their open jaws! This is a new branch of leaves developing!

link to:

Cee’s Flower of the Day – April 5, 2019 – Daffodils

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