Banksia ericifolia

A bushy shrub to small tree capable of reaching 6 m tall and a spread to 4 m in the wild.

It is found naturally on sand deposits and sandstone in dry sclerophyll woodlands and gully forests and ridgetop woodlands as well as coastal heaths and shrublands where it can dominate and form dense impenetrable stands. It is also found on heavier clayey soils or where clay has infiltrated sand and sandstone deposits, and can grow in swampy wet conditions. It is found mainly along the coast and into the Blue Mountains, north from Jervis Bay, to south-east Queensland.

The leaves are alternate to pseudo-whorled, heavily clustered along the stems, linear, to 20 mm long and only 1-2 mm wide, dark green above and lower surface much paler with dense hairs. The leaf apex is distinctively toothed or notched, which helps when identifying seedlings and small plants.

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 spikes are generally to 20 cm long but can be up to 40 cm, and up to 10 cm wide, with each flower thin but up to 5 cm long, bright orange (gold-orange) to burnt orange to red-orange in some populations.

The spike then turns into a cone-like structure of follicles; a fruit which splits open on one side. Each follicle is to 20 mm long and 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.