Banksia Lindleyana - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Commonly known as the Porcupine Banksia, B. lindleyana was first published by Carl Meissner in 1855, based on material collected by James Drummond in 1850–1851 near the lower Murchison River. Meissner did not give an etymology for the specific epithet, but it is accepted that the name honours John Lindley. Initially, Meissner's only comment on the affinities of the species was that

"In the leaves and glabrous flowers this has some resemblance to B. cylindrostachya, but otherwise it is quite distinct, as well as from every other species."

When he published his taxonomic arrangement of Banksia the following year, in B. ser Salicinae on account of its linear leaves with grey undersides, positioning it between B. cylindrostachya and B. marginata.

When George Bentham published his arrangement in 1870, he abandoned Meissner's series, which were based on leaf characters and therefore unacceptably heterogeneous. Instead he erected four sections, placing B. lindleyana in B. sect. Orthostylis (now B. ser. Banksia) because the styles, after they have been released from the perianth, are curved only at the base, and are otherwise, straight, rigid and erect. The species was positioned between B. caleyi and B. elegans.

A major disruption to Banksia nomenclature occurred in 1891, when Otto Kuntze challenged Banksia L.f. on the grounds that Banksia J.R.Forst & G.Forst (now Pimelea) had been published before it. Kuntze transferred all Banksia taxa to the new name Sirmuellera; thus B. lindleyana became Sirmuellera lindleyana (L.f.) Kuntze. Kuntze's transfer was rejected, andSirmuellera lindleyana is now considered a nomenclatural synonym of B. lindleyana.

In 1981, Alex George published "The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)", which presented the first taxonomic revision of Banksia for over a century. In George's taxonomic arrangement, B. lindleyana was placed in B. ser. Cyrtostylis, which was defined as containing those members of B. sect. Banksia with slender flowers, a small pollen-presenter, and beaked follicles. The species was placed near the middle of the series, between B. attenuata and B. ashbyi, but George also acknowledged that some characters that were not typical of the series: an unusually large pollen-presenter, and some characters similar to those of B. ser. Tetragonae.

George's arrangement stood unchallenged until 1996, when Kevin Thiele and Pauline Ladiges published their revised arrangement based on a cladistic analysis of the genus. They found George's B. ser. Cyrtostylis to be highly polyphyletic, and transferred a number of taxa into other series. B. lindleyana resolved as one of the most basal species of B. subg. Banksia, after B. elegans and a small clade consisting of B. elderiana and B. ser. Tetragonae. Accordingly, it was placed alone in a new series, B. ser. Lindleyanae, which was placed between B. ser. Tetragonae and B. ser. Banksia.

Banksia

B. subg. Isostylis (3 species)

B. elegans (incertae sedis)

B. subg. Banksia

B. ser. Tetragonae (4 species)

B. ser. Lindleyanae

B. lindleyana

B. ser. Banksia (2 subseries, 12 species)

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 (3 species, 2 subspecies)

B. ser. Grandes (2 species)

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

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

B. ser. Quercinae (2 species)

B. ser. Dryandroideae (1 species)

B. ser. Abietinae (4 subseries, 15 species, 8 varieties)

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. George's 1999 arrangement was essentially a revision of his 1981 arrangement, which took into account some of Thiele and Ladiges' data, but rejected their overall arrangement. Despite George describing B. ser. Cyrtostylis as "a rather heterogeneous series", his 1981 circumscription was restored with minimal changes, the most significant being the relocation of B. lindleyana to the end of the series, in recognition of the species' relationship with B. ser. Tetragonae:

Banksia

B. subg. Banksia

B. sect. Banksia

B. ser. Salicinae (11 species, 7 subspecies)

B. ser. Grandes (2 species)

B. ser. Banksia (8 species)

B. ser. Crocinae (4 species)

B. ser. Prostratae (6 species, 3 varieties)

B. ser. Cyrtostylis

B. media

B. praemorsa

B. epica

B. pilostylis

B. attenuata

B. ashbyi

B. benthamiana

B. audax

B. lullfitzii

B. elderiana

B. laevigata (2 subspecies)

B. elegans

B. lindleyana

B. ser. Tetragonae (3 species)

B. ser. Bauerinae (1 species)

B. ser. Quercinae (2 species)

B. sect. Coccinea (1 species)

B. sect. Oncostylis (4 series, 22 species, 4 subspecies, 11 varieties)

B. subg. Isostylis (3 species)

Since 1998, Austin Mast has been publishing results of ongoing cladistic analyses of DNA sequence data for the subtribe Banksiinae. His analyses suggest a phylogeny that is very greatly different to George's arrangement, with B. lindleyana appearing in a clade with B. menziesii, B. ashbyi and B. sceptrum. Early in 2007, Mast and Thiele initiated a rearrangement of Banksia by merging Dryandra into it, and publishing B. subg. Spathulatae for the taxa 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. lindleyana is placed in B. subg. Banksia.

Among the Dryandra species transferred into Banksia by Mast and Thiele was Dryandra lindleyana; as the specific epithet "lindlayana" was already taken, D. lindleyana was given the name Banksia dallanneyi, the new specific epithet being an anagram of "lindleyana".