Description
Banksia aemula is generally a gnarled shrub or small tree to 8 m (25 ft), although usually smaller. The trunk has thick orange-brown wrinkled and warty bark, and the new growth is hairy but becomes smooth as it ages. New shoot growth is in spring and summer. The shiny green leaves are obovate to oblong in shape and measure 3–22 cm (1.4–9 in) in length, and 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) in width. The leaf ends are truncate and the margins flat and serrated. Flowering is in autumn, from March to June; the green-yellow flower spikes, known as inflorescences, are terminal, found on the ends of branches and emerging from the foliage. Measuring 4 to 20 cm (1.6–8 in) in height and 8 to 9 cm (2.8–3.2 in) in width, they are various shades of pale and greenish yellow. Anywhere from 800 to 1700 individual small flowers arise from a central woody spike (or rachis). Initially tipped with white conical pollen presenters, the flowers open sequentially from the bottom to the top of the inflorescence over one to two weeks, in a process known as anthesis. Each flower produces nectar for around seven days after opening. The flower spikes turn grey as they age and up to 25 finely furred grey follicles appear, which can be very large, measuring 3–4.5 cm (1.2–2.6 in) long, 2–3.5 cm (0.8–1.4 in) high, and 2–3.5 cm (0.8–1.4 in) wide. They split open either after bushfire or spontaneously, and release oval seeds 4–4.7 cm (1.6–1.9 in) in length, composed of a wedge-shaped body 1–1.5 cm (0.4–0.6 in) long and 1.1–1.6 cm (0.4–0.6 in) wide, and curved wing 2–3.2 cm (0.8–1.3 in) wide. Banksia aemula resprouts from its woody lignotuber after fire.
Banksia aemula closely resembles Banksia serrata, but the latter can be distinguished by a greyer, not orange-brown, trunk, and adult leaves wider than 2 cm (0.8 in) in diameter. Inflorescences of serrata are generally a duller grey-yellow in colour, and have longer (2–3 mm), more fusiform (spindle-shaped) or cylindrical pollen presenters tipping unopened flowers. Finally, the follicles are smaller.
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