Banksia Prionotes - Conservation

Conservation

Banksia prionotes is susceptible to a number of threatening processes. It is highly susceptible to Phytophthora cinnamomi dieback; wild populations are harvested commercially by the cut flower industry; and some of its range is subject to land clearing for urban or agricultural purposes. An assessment of the potential impact of climate change on this species found that severe change is likely to lead to a reduction in its range of around 50% by 2080; and even mild change is projected to cause a reduction of 30%; but under mid-severity scenarios the distribution may actually grow, depending on how effectively it can migrate into newly habitable areas. However, this study does not address the potential of climate change to alter fire regimes; these have already been impacted by the arrival of humans, and this change is thought to have led to a decline in the abundance and range of B. prionotes.

The species as a whole is not considered particularly vulnerable to these factors, however, as it is so widely distributed and common. Western Australia's Department of Environment and Conservation does not consider it to be rare, and has not included it on their Declared Rare and Priority Flora List. It nonetheless has high conservation importance in at least one context: it is a keystone mutualist in the Avon Wheatbelt, where it is the only source of nectar during a critical period of the year when no other nectar-producing plant is in flower. The loss of B. prionotes from the region would therefore mean the loss of all the honeyeaters as well, and this would affect the many other species of plants that rely on honeyeaters for pollination. The primary vegetation community in which Banksia prionotes occurs in the Avon Wheatbelt is considered a priority ecological community, and is proposed for formal gazetting as a threatened ecological community under the name "Banksia prionotes and Xylomelum angustifolium low woodlands on transported yellow sand". Although currently in near-pristine and static condition, it is considered at risk due to a large number of threatening processes, including land clearing, landscape fragmentation, rising soil salinity, grazing pressure, competition with weeds, changes to the fire regime, rubbish dumping, and P. cinnamomi dieback.