Banksia brunnea

Banksia brunnea is a bushy, much-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.7 m (2 ft 4 in) but does not form a lignotuber. Its leaves are dark green, 150–350 mm (5.9–13.8 in) long, 10–16 mm (0.39–0.63 in) wide on a petiole 15–30 mm (0.59–1.18 in) long and pinnatisect with between forty and seventy-five lobes on each side with V-shaped spaces between the lobes. The flowers are arranged in heads of between fifty-five and seventy flowers, each flower with a pink perianth 28–39 mm (1.1–1.5 in) long and a deep red pistil 41–54 mm (1.6–2.1 in) long. Flowering occurs in August and the fruit is a mostly glabrous, egg-shaped follicle 12–14 mm (0.47–0.55 in) long.[2][3]

This banksia was first formally described in 1845 by Carl Meissner who gave it the name Dryandra brownii and published the description in Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae.[4][5] In 2007 Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele transferred all the dryandras to the genus Banksia but as there was already a plant named Banksia brownii, Mast and Thiele chose the specific epithet "brunnea".[6] The specific epithet is from a Latin word meaning "brown".[7][8]

Banksia brunnea grows in kwongan between Albany, the Stirling Range and the Fitzgerald River National Park.[2][3]

This species is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.[2]

An assessment of the potential impact of climate change on this species found that its range is likely to contract by between 30% and 80% by 2080, depending on the severity of the change.[9]

• Cavanagh, Tony; Pieroni, Margaret (2006). The Dryandras. Melbourne: Australian Plants Society (SGAP Victoria); Perth: Wildflower Society of Western Australia. ISBN 1-876473-54-1.