Banksias on the coastal road

Marlo

In mid-May this year, Lynda and I travelled up the east coast to Bateman's Bay to attend the biennial conference of the Australian Association of Friends of Botanic Gardens.

It was our first long trip in a new electric (ev) car, adding some range anxiety and compulsory chilling out at regular intervals along the way. We made it, and back. From the conference we brought back happy memories of catching up with many Friends/friends, a reminder of the hardship endured by Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Garden over the last few years (fire, flood) and adose of COVID.

But this post is about the journey and one of the plants that featured strongly near our stopovers, the Coast Banksia. Banksia integrifolia is found from Port Phillip Bay up the east coast to southern Queensland, as well as on King and Long Islands in Bass Strait.

Marlo

There are three subspecies, only one of which occurs in Victoria, and is the one I've photographed here from Marlo and Cape Conran. (There is another very similar looking species found near Sydney, Banksia aquilonia, which I've posted on previously.)

It's a lovely tree when it gets time (and protection from fire) to grow old, although with not quite as much gnarly character as a few other banksias (e.g. Saw Banksia, Banksia serrata). 

Mostly Costal Banksia survives fire through seed, released from protective woody fruits after the fire and primed to germinate by chemicals left in the soil from the smoke. As here at Cape Conran.

Cape Conran

I did, notice a few trees regenerating from the trunk though, clearly at the edge of strongly burnt areas, where presumably the temperatures and impacts were lower.

Cape Conran

To distinguish Coast Banksia from the other eight species of banksia in Victoria, look for large trees with yellow flowerheads and relatively broad (not narrow, or what we call 'linear') leaves without any saw-like edges. 

Marlo

Cape Conran

Although, small plants or young leaves can have a few sharp teeth along the margin, as in this next branch from a small specimen near the roadside at Marlo

To separate it from its Banksia saxicola is more difficult, but that species is only found in the Grampians (west of Coast Banksia's range) and Wilsons Promontory (where both grow, but the latter on higher, rocky peaks).

When we finally got to Bateman's Bay, I found our familiar friend at Burrewarra Point, growing with Saw Banksia, a species I've also featured before. 

Saw Banksia trunk, Burrewarra Point

It's quite the banksia forest on this Point, with some large specimens of Coast Banksia competing for attending among the showy Saw Banksias.

Burrewarra Point

We took the Hume Highway for our return trip, which was easier for car charging but provided far fewer opportunities to enjoy banksias of any kind, let alone the Coast Banksia.