Emblemic banksia from the west

Having suggested back in January it was time to ditch the Common Heath, Epacris impressa, as Victoria's floral emblem in favour of a banksia, I've been wondering if I picked the right one. I suggested the Silver Banksia, Banksia marginata, because I felt it was the most 'Victorian' - by which I mean it was widespread in the State and more often here than elsewhere.

Others have suggested the Old Man Banksia, Banksia serrata, which I have to admit was my first thought. I discounted it though as one more closely associated with Botany Bay and therefore New South Wales.

In any case, it's odd that a banksia has not been used yet for any State floral emblem. I should note here that the Gold Coast, a region, does identify with the Wallum Banksia, Banksia aemula. 

But I'm digress too much. This post is about a Western Australian banksia that I found among my photographs when trying to decide which banksia I thought we should appropriate for Victoria. Certainly not this one given it only grows near Esperance, in the fast south-west of Western Australia.

I'm featuring it because it displays all those characteristics we love about banksias, in spades. While the flowers are your more classical - and rather common - yellow, the flowering heads have beautiful form. The flowers themselves are softly hairy, as the species name - pilostylis (softy hairy styles) - implies.

When young the flowering heads of Banksia pilostylis are candle-like. Expanding as the flowers open into a neatly clipped bottlebrush.

The young leaves are, as they often are, coloured differently and hairy. The older leaves a lovely blue-green. 

It's a compact shrub, with flowers from at least October through to January. My pictures were taken at Kings Park in Perth, in late September 2019. Better still, these flowers will attract (at least in southern Western Australia), 'honeyeaters and other small nectar loving creatures'.

We don't grow this species at either Melbourne or Cranbourne Gardens, but it should do well in sandy soil in coastal or near-coastal Victoria. Not well enough to become our floral emblem of course, but the more banksias we grow the better, right?