Banksia Subser. Cratistylis - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Thiele and Ladiges accepted this clade as the basis for their B. ser. Banksia, discarding George's B. ser. Crocinae. They divided the series into two subseries in accordance with their cladogram, with B. ornata (Desert Banksia), B. serrata (Saw Banksia) and B. aemula (Wallum Banksia) placed in B. subser. Banksia, and the remaining nine species placed in B. subser. Cratistylis. The latter subseries was formally defined as containing those species with "stout, usually monotonically curved, smooth styles, and seed bodies usually with spine-like or plate-like processes on their inner faces", and given as type species B. menziesii (Firewood Banksia). The subseries name comes from the Greek kratys ("strong, sturdy") and stylos ("style"), in reference to the stout style and pollen-presenter of the species contained therein.

The placement and circumscription of B. subser. Cratistylis in Thiele and Ladiges' arrangement may be summarised as follows:

Banksia

B. subg. Isostylis (3 species)

B. elegans (incertae sedis)

B. subg. Banksia

B. ser. Tetragonae (4 species)

B. ser. Lindleyanae (1 species)

B. ser. Banksia

B. subser. Banksia

B. ornata

B. serrata

B. aemula

B. subser. Cratistylis

B. candolleana

B. sceptrum

B. baxteri

B. speciosa

B. menziesii

B. burdettii

B. victoriae

B. hookeriana

B. prionotes

B. baueri (incertae sedis)

B. lullfitzii (incertae sedis)

B. attenuata (incertae sedis)

B. ashbyi (incertae sedis)

B. coccinea (incertae sedis)

B. ser. Prostratae (8 species)

B. ser. Cyrtostylis (4 species)

B. ser. Ochraceae (4 species)

B. ser. Grandes (2 species)

B. ser. Salicinae (2 subseries, 11 species, 4 subspecies)

B. ser. Spicigerae (3 subseries, 7 species, 6 varieties)

B. ser. Quercinae (2 species)

B. ser. Dryandroides (1 species)

B. ser. Abietinae (4 subspecies, 14 species, 8 subspecies)

Thiele and Ladiges' arrangement remained current only until 1999, when George's treatment of the genus for the Flora of Australia series of monographs was published. This was essentially a revision of George's 1981 arrangement, which took into account some of Thiele and Ladiges' data, but rejected their overall arrangement, including B. subser. Cratistylis.