Banksia L.f.

76 species

Shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate, sometimes whorled or in pseudowhorls, xeromorphic (Fig. 32). Flowers sessile, in pairs around a thick rhachis of a dense terminal spike, each subtended by one thick bract and two similar bracteoles. Perianth tube slender. Anthers sessile in the concave tips of the perianth segments. Hypogynous glands 4. Ovary sessile. Style straight or hooked and protruding from a slit in the perianth tube but finally free; pollen presenter ± cone-shaped, just below the stigma. Fruit a follicle, opening in two hard woody valves set transversely on the rhachis. The bracts and bracteoles becoming consolidated with the fruits and the rhachis to form a thick woody cone to which the withered barren flowers adhere for a time.