Banksia attenuata: Difference between revisions

''Banksia attenuata'' was first collected by [[Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)|Robert Brown]] from [[King George Sound]] in December 1801, and published by him in 1810. The [[specific name (botany)|specific epithet]] is the [[Latin]] adjective ''attenuatus'' "narrowed", and refers to the leaves narrowing towards the base.<ref name="George96">{{cite book|last=George|first=Alex S.|title=The Banksia Book|edition=3rd|year=1996|publisher=Kangaroo Press|location=Kenthurst, New South Wales|isbn=0-86417-818-2|page=133}}</ref> The species has had a fairly uneventful [[taxonomy (biology)|taxonomic]] history. It has only two synonyms, and no [[subspecies]] or [[variety (botany)|varieties]] have been published;<ref name="APNI 52773">{{APNI | name = ''Banksia attenuata'' R.Br. | id = 52773}}</ref> Australian botanist [[Alex George]] reviewed the variation in form in the species, and felt that the tree and shrub forms differed only in size and hence were not distinct enough to represent separate [[taxon|taxa]].<ref name="George81" /> In 1840, [[John Lindley]] published a putative new species, ''Banksia cylindrostachya'', in his ''[[A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony]]''; this has now be shown to be a [[taxonomic synonym]] of ''B.&nbsp;attenuata''.<ref name="APNI 53299">{{APNI | name = ''Banksia cylindrostachya'' Lindl. | id = 53299}}</ref> In 1891, [[Otto Kuntze]] rejected the generic name ''Banksia'' [[Carolus Linnaeus the Younger|L.f.]], on the grounds that the name ''Banksia'' had previously been published in 1776 as ''Banksia'' [[Johann Reinhold Forster|J.R.Forst]] & [[Georg Forster|G.Forst]], referring to the genus now known as ''[[Pimelea]]''. Kuntze proposed ''Sirmuellera'' as an alternative, referring to this species as ''Sirmuellera attenuata''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kuntze |first=Otto |authorlink=Otto Kuntze |title=Revisio generum plantarum |volume=2 |publisher=Arthur Felix |location=Leipzig |year=1891 |pages=581–582 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4004}}</ref> This application of the [[principle of priority]] was largely ignored by Kuntze's contemporaries,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rehder |first1=A. |authorlink1=Alfred Rehder |last2=Weatherby |first2=C. A. |authorlink2=Charles Alfred Weatherby |last3=Mansfeld |first3=R. |authorlink3=Rudolf Mansfeld |last4=Green |first4=M. L. |authorlink4=Mary Letitia Green |title=Conservation of Later Generic Homonyms |journal=Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) |year=1935 |volume=1935 |issue=6/9 |page=368 |doi=10.2307/4107078 |jstor=4107078}}</ref> and ''Banksia'' L.f. was [[conserved name|formally conserved]] and ''Sirmuellera'' rejected in 1940.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sprague |first=T. A. |authorlink=Thomas Archibald Sprague |title=Additional Nomina Generica Conservanda (Pteridophyta and Phanerogamae) |journal=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |year=1940 |volume=1940 |issue=3 |doi=10.2307/4111642 |jstor=4111642 |page=99}}</ref> [[Common name]]s include slender banksia, candle banksia and candlestick banksia. ''Piara'' (alternately spelled ''biara'') is an [[Australian Aborigines|aboriginal]] name from the [[Melville, Western Australia|Melville]] region of Perth.