Banksia cunninghamii

It is a large shrub or small tree to 6 to 7 m tall. Its leaves are narrow with fin e serrations near the end. It forms an open canopy with flowers amongst the foliage.

Originally considered a variety of B. spinulosa, but in NSW it is now considered a separate species. It is found in several disjointed populations along the east coast and ranges from northern NSW to eastern Victoria.

It is a seed-obligate, non-lignotuberous species. The tree form, single-stemmed growing up to 7 m high is often found growing together with B. spinulosa which is lignotuberous and a lowish multi-stemmed shrub rarely exceeding 2 metres.

It grows in dry sclerophyll woodland and forest on sandstone as well as heavier soils in some locations.

The leaves are narrow to 70 mm long x 5 mm wide with small teeth at the apex.

The inflorescences of Banksias are generally referred to as spikes or a spike-like structure which consists of fused racemes of paired flowers (hence it gets referred to as a conflorescence). There can be 100s of flowers in each spike. The flowers of banksias have 4 tepals (petals or sepals) in a tubular formation, 4 anthers hidden inside and an elongated carpel (female part) where the style extends outwards forming the edge of the spike (somewhat similar to individual grevillea and hakea flowers).

In this species, the flowers are generally yellow to orange with purple or black hairpin-shaped styles. They generally flower in autumn. The flower spikes can be up to 15 cm long.

The spike then turns into a cone-like structure of follicles; a fruit which splits open on one side. Each follicle has one or two winged seeds which is actually a fruit in itself called a samara. The follicles can take a long time to mature and open, usually needing a fire. Each “cone” can produce a fair amount of seed with this species having up to 100 follicles per “cone”, each up to 25 mm long.