page_title: Banksia telmatiaea
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Banksia telmatiaea / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: This is a cropped version of Image:B telmatiaea 25 gnangarra.jpg, which was taken by Gnangarra on 14 May 2007, in the Yule Brook Botany Reserve. It shows the infructescence of Banksia telmatiaea, after a bushfire has triggered the opening of its follicles and release of seed.
context_page_description: Banksia telmatiaea, commonly known as swamp fox banksia or rarely marsh banksia, is a shrub that grows in marshes and swamps along the lower west coast of Australia. It grows as an upright bush up to 2 metres tall, with narrow leaves and a pale brown flower spike, which can produce profuse quantities of nectar. First collected in the 1840s, it was not published as a separate species until 1981; as with several other similar species it was previously included in B. sphaerocarpa.
  The shrub grows amongst scrubland in seasonally wet lowland areas of the coastal sandplain between Badgingarra and Serpentine in Western Australia. A little studied species, not much is known of its ecology or conservation biology. Reports suggest that it is pollinated by a variety of birds and small mammals. Like many members of series Abietinae, it has not been considered to have much horticultural potential and is rarely cultivated.
context_section_description: Like most other Proteaceae, B. telmatiaea has proteoid roots, roots with dense clusters of short lateral rootlets that form a mat in the soil just below the leaf litter. These roots are particularly efficient at absorbing nutrients from nutrient-poor soils, such as the phosphorus-deficient native soils of Australia.
  Unlike many Banksia species, B. telmatiaea lacks a lignotuber, so plants are killed by bushfire. It is adapted to release its aerial seed bank following a bushfire, and so regenerates rapidly. This behaviour, known as serotiny, makes B. telmatiaea dependent upon a suitable fire regime for successful regeneration; indeed, excessive fire frequency may be one reason why B. telmatiaea does not occur further south, despite suitable habitat throughout southwest Australia. Unlike most serotinous Banksia species, the seeds of B. telmatiaea are not released immediately after the passage of a bushfire. The follicles open straight away, but at first the seeds are blocked from falling out by the winged seed separator. If moistened, these wings close up, and as they dry they open out again, levering the seeds out of position, making it possible for them to fall. This adaptation ensures that seeds are released only after the first rains following a bushfire.
  Four species of bird have been observed visiting the flowers of B. telmatiaea: the red wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata), silvereye (Zosterops lateralis), New Holland honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) and the brown honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta). The introduced European honeybee (Apis mellifera) is also commonly observed, and visits by ants and Hylaeus plasterer bees have been recorded. Visits by nectarivorous mammals have not been directly observed, but their involvement in pollination is certain, as their scats have often been found on inflorescences, and studies of other Banksia species have consistently demonstrated their involvement. Moreover, a number of characteristics of the B. telmatiaea spike are purported to be adaptations to pollination by nocturnal mammals: the strong, musky odour, the occurrence of inflorescences hidden within the foliage close to the ground, the large amounts of nectar produced, and the pattern of nectar production, which peaks at dawn and dusk. This last adaptation is thought to favour visits by birds and mammals, which feed in the morning and evening respectively, as opposed to insects, which are most active during the day.
  Reproductive success is strongly affected by insects that infest the flower spikes and fruiting structures. Infestation of the flower spikes is not as severe as in other Banksia species: one study found less than 10% of B. telmatiaea inflorescences to be infested, compared to over 50% for B. attenuata (candlestick banksia), B. littoralis and B. menziesii (Menzies' banksia), and over 90% for B. grandis (bull banksia). Also, whereas other species were attacked by a range of insects, the inflorescence of B. telmatiaea was attacked only by the tortrix moth Arotrophora arcuatalis (banksia boring moth), which burrows into the woody axis, rendering the spike barren. On the other hand, the same study observed heavy infestation of fruiting structures, with over 90% of spikes with follicles found to contain at least one larva of an unidentified species of moth of the genus Xylorycta. These larvae burrow from follicle to follicle to eat the seed, resulting in 100% seed loss for infested spikes.
  B. telmatiaea is one of five Banksia species, all closely related to B. sphaerocarpa, that have highly unusual flower nectar. Whereas other Banksia species produce nectar that is clear and watery, the nectar of these species is pale yellow initially, but gradually becomes darker and thicker, changing to a thick, olive-green mucilage within one to two days of secretion. In the case of B. telmatiaea, it eventually becomes "an almost black, gelatinous lump adhering to the base of the flowers". This unusual nectar was first noted in 1980 by Byron Lamont, who attributed its transformation to the cyanobacteria that he observed f
caption: Bushfire kills adult plants, but also triggers the release of seed, ensuring rapid regeneration
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