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Banksia Menziesii, (Menzies/FirewoodBanksia)
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NAME
The Banksia Menziesii (it’s proper name), is also known as Menzies’ Banksia and the Firewood Banksia. It was named the Banksia Menziesii after Archibald Menzies, a famous botanist on the Discovery expedition (from 1791 to 1795). He collected many plants there, and discovered this one.

DESCRIPTION
The Banksia Menziesii grows crooked and ranges from 8 to 15 metres in height. When it matures, it has thick spreading branches. It’s bark is rough, but thick and woolly on the branches.

It’s leaves range from 15 to 30 cm long and 2 to 4 cm wide. They are usually wavy and spiked.

It’s flowers are ranging from 10 to 12 cm long and almost the same in width. The buds are cylinder. At first they are silver-grey, but then they as they grow, they are red tipped with a touch of silver, before the flowers begin to open and release golden styles.

Mature seed cones (the Banksia Menziesii’s fruit), have a few seed follicles sticking out from a textured spike up the top. The seeds are released freely.

Related Species
There are no plant species closely related to the Banksia Menziesii, although the closest one would be the Banksia Speciosa from the south coast of WA. It has long leaves with triangular lobes and pale yellow flowers.

Location and Climate
The Banksia Menziesii is distributed from the Murchison River down to Pinjarra near the WA coast. It lives in deep sand in low woodland and tall shrub land.

Predators
One of the main “predators” that takes out native bushland is fire. Fortunately, nature has equipped this plant with a way to avoid death in this tragic event. Fire assists regeneration by temporarily removing competition for light, space and nutrients; by reducing numbers of insects and other species like that; and by promoting seed germination through heat and smoke effects.

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