Banksia Serrata

Where   : Bobbin Head, Cowan Creek
When    : Wednesday, 31st October 2007, 7-55am
Weapon : Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3

Banksia Serrata (after Sir Joseph Banks and the Latin meaning "saw edged"), also known as "Old Man Banksia" for unknown reasons, may reach 15 metres in height in favourable conditions.

Prolific in suburban Sydney, it is often only 5 metres or so, forming a gnarled and stunted small tree with blackened rough bark as a result of surviving many bush fires.

The wood is a beautiful red colour and the thick rough bark allows it to regenerate by sending out epicormic shoots from beneath the bark a week or so after the fire has passed. In exposed coastal areas the plants may develop a prostrate habit of growth and these forms generally retain that habit in cultivation away from the coast (eg Banksia serrata "Austraflora Pygmy Possum", a form from the south coast of New South Wales).