Banksia Dentata - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Banksia dentata was first collected by Europeans from the vicinity of the Endeavour River somewhere between 17 June and 3 August 1770 by Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Daniel Solander, naturalists on the Endeavour during Lieutenant (later Captain) James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific Ocean. However, the description of the species was not published until April 1782, when Carolus Linnaeus the Younger described the first four Banksia species in his Supplementum Plantarum.

Robert Brown recorded 31 species of Banksia in his 1810 work Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen, and in his taxonomic arrangement, placed the taxon in the subgenus Banksia verae, the "True Banksias", because the inflorescence is a typical Banksia flower spike. By the time Carl Meissner published his 1856 arrangement of the genus, there were 58 described Banksia species. Meissner divided Brown's Banksia verae, which had been renamed Eubanksia by Stephan Endlicher in 1847, into four series based on leaf properties. He placed it in the series Quercinae.

In 1870, George Bentham published a thorough revision of Banksia in his landmark publication Flora Australiensis. In Bentham's arrangement, the number of recognised Banksia species was reduced from 60 to 46. Bentham defined four sections based on leaf, style and pollen-presenter characters. Banksia dentata was placed in section Eubanksia alongside B. marginata and a broadly defined B. integrifolia.

There has been debate on which species it is most closely related to. The inflorescences are similar to Banksia integrifolia, while the leaves are reminiscent of Banksia robur. In any case it is clearly a member of the Salicinae series.

Alf Salkin has proposed B. dentata displays characteristics which are primitive within the genus. Unlike southern banksias, it has small juvenile leaves and broad dentate adult leaves.

It is known locally as swamp banksia, and guibuk by the indigenous people in Kakadu National Park. Its name in the Nunggubuyu language of eastern Arnhem Land is rilirdili. A local name from the indigenous people of Groote Eylandt is enindurrkwa.