page_title: Banksia aemula
section_title: Current placement
hierarchical_section_title: Banksia aemula / Taxonomy / Current placement
caption_attribution_description: Banksia aemula in the Bombi Moors Bouddi National Park
context_page_description: Banksia aemula, commonly known as the wallum banksia, is a shrub of the family Proteaceae. Found from Bundaberg south to Sydney on the Australian east coast, it is encountered as a shrub or a tree to 8 m in coastal heath on deep sandy soil, known as Wallum. It has wrinkled orange bark and shiny green serrated leaves, with green-yellow flower spikes, known as inflorescences, appearing in autumn. The flower spikes turn grey as they age and large grey follicles appear. Banksia aemula resprouts from its woody base, known as a lignotuber, after bushfires.
  First described by the botanist Robert Brown in the early 19th century, it derives its specific name "similar" from its resemblance to the closely related Banksia serrata. No varieties are recognised. It was known for many years in New South Wales as Banksia serratifolia, contrasting with the use of B. aemula elsewhere. However, the former name, originally coined by Richard Anthony Salisbury, proved invalid, and Banksia aemula has been universally adopted as the correct scientific name since 1981.
context_section_description: Alex George published a new taxonomic arrangement of Banksia in his classic 1981 monograph The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae). Endlicher's Eubanksia became B. subg. Banksia, and was divided into three sections. B. aemula was placed in B. sect. Banksia, and this was further divided into nine series, with B. aemula placed in B. ser. Banksia.
  He thought its closest relative was clearly Banksia serrata and then B. ornata, and that the three formed a link with western species. Since Brown's original publication had treated all of Fraser's specimens as syntypes (shared type specimens) for the species, George also chose a lectotype (a single specimen to serve as the type specimen).
  In 1996, Kevin Thiele and Pauline Ladiges published a new arrangement for the genus, after cladistic analyses yielded a cladogram significantly different from George's arrangement. Thiele and Ladiges' arrangement retained B. aemula in series Banksia, placing it in B. subser. Banksia along with  serrata as its sister taxon (united by their unusual seedling leaves) and ornata as next closest relative. This arrangement stood until 1999, when George effectively reverted to his 1981 arrangement in his monograph for the Flora of Australia series.
  Under George's taxonomic arrangement of Banksia, B. aemula's taxonomic placement may be summarised as follows:
  Genus Banksia
  Subgenus Banksia
  Section Banksia
  Series Banksia
  B. serrata
  B. aemula
  B. ornata
  B. baxteri
  B. speciosa
  B. menziesii
  B. candolleana
  B. sceptrum
  In 2002, a molecular study by Austin Mast again showed the three eastern species to form a group, but they were only distantly related to other members of the series Banksia. Instead, they formed a sister group to a large group comprising the series Prostratae, Ochraceae, Tetragonae (including Banksia elderiana), Banksia lullfitzii and Banksia baueri.
  In 2005, Mast, Eric Jones and Shawn Havery published the results of their cladistic analyses of DNA sequence data for Banksia. They inferred a phylogeny greatly different from the accepted taxonomic arrangement, including finding Banksia to be paraphyletic with respect to Dryandra. A new taxonomic arrangement was not published at the time, but early in 2007 Mast and Thiele initiated a rearrangement by transferring Dryandra to Banksia, and publishing B. subg. Spathulatae for the species having spoon-shaped cotyledons; in this way they also redefined the autonym B. subg. Banksia. They foreshadowed publishing a full arrangement once DNA sampling of Dryandra was complete. In the meantime, if Mast and Thiele's nomenclatural changes are taken as an interim arrangement, then B. aemula is placed in B. subg. Banksia.
caption: Inflorescence after anthesis, with all flowers fully opened
exif: {}