Kingdom Plantae Family Proteaceae Subgenus Banksia subg. Banksia Scientific name Banksia idiogenes | Order Proteales Genus Banksia Series Banksia ser. Dryandra Rank Species | |
Similar Banksia bella, Banksia acanthopoda, Banksia horrida, Banksia alliacea, Banksia cirsioides | ||
Banksia idiogenes is a shrub endemic to Western Australia. It was known as Dryandra idiogenes until 2007.
Taxonomy
B. idiogenes was first discovered by Alex George in 1986, and published by him in 1996 as Dryandra idiogenes, the specific epithet coming from the Greek idiogenes ("distinctive, peculiar"), in reference to this species' unusual involucrum, indumentum and the strongly scented red and white flowers. Indeed, George considered the species to be so distinctive that he placed it alone in a new series that he named Dryandra ser. Inusitatae, from the Latin inusitatus ("rare, unusual").
Since 1998, Austin Mast has been publishing results of ongoing cladistic analyses of DNA sequence data for the subtribe Banksiinae. His analyses have provided compelling evidence of the paraphyly of Banksia with respect to Dryandra; that is, it seems that Dryandra arose from within the ranks of Banksia. Early in 2007, Mast and Kevin Thiele initiated a rearrangement of Banksia by sinking Dryandra into it as B. ser. Dryandra; Dryandra idiogenes thus became Banksia idiogenes. This transfer necessitated the setting aside of George's infrageneric arrangement of Dryandra; thus D. ser. Inusitatae is no longer current. Mast and Thiele have foreshadowed publishing a full arrangement once DNA sampling of Dryandra is complete.