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Desert Banksia

Banksia ornata

Desert Banksia
Photo: Casliber, Public domain

Desert banksia is a shrub native to south-eastern Australia, growing to about 3 m with cream flower spikes in winter and spring. It needs full sun and sandy, well-drained soil, and it grows in mallee and heathland.

Family
Proteaceae (Protea family)
Grows as
Shrub
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly once established and let the soil dry out between waterings, since it suits sandy, well-drained ground.
Soil
Sandy, free-draining soil; avoid heavy, waterlogged clay.
Temperature
Tolerates cool winters and hot summers typical of its native mallee range; protect young plants from hard frost.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
SE. South Australia, SW. Victoria
Climate
subtropical

About

Banksia ornata, commonly known as desert banksia, is a species of shrub that is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia. The Ngarrindjeri people of the Lower Murray region in South Australia know it as yelakut. It has thin bark, serrated, narrow egg-shaped leaves with the lower end towards the base, cream-coloured flowers in a cylindrical spike, and later, up to fifty follicles in each spike, surrounded by the remains of the flowers.

Where it grows

Desert banksia is common in western Victoria and in South Australia. In South Australia it is found in the south-east of the state south of Nuriootpa, including on the lower Eyre Peninsula, Kangaroo Island and east of Adelaide. It is confined to the far west of Victoria, mainly between Murrayville and the Grampians. It tends to grow in mallee and heathland environments in sandy, well-drained soils.

Other Banksia plants

Banksia acanthopoda · Prickly Banksia · Banksia acuminata · Wallum Banksia · Banksia alliacea · Cactus Dryandra · Northern Banksia · Yilgarn Dryandra · Banksia archaeocarpa · Banksia arctotidis · Banksia armata var. armata · Banksia armata var. ignicida

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Banksia ornata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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