Banksia nutans

Banksia nutans, commonly known as nodding banksia, is a species of shrub native to the south coast of Western Australia in the genus Banksia. Growing to a metre (3 ft) tall, it has pale blue-green fine-leaved foliage and unusual purple-brown inflorescences which hang upside down rather than grow upright like most other banksias. It is one of many banksias first described by the botanist Robert Brown in the early 19th century. It is not commonly seen in cultivation. Readily grown in areas with Mediterranean climates, its sensitivity to dieback makes it short-lived in climates of summer humidity such as Sydney. It grows as a shrub up to one metre tall, without a lignotuber. Its bark peels in thin red and grey flakes. Leaves are 10 to 2 centimetres long and 0.5 to 1.5 millimetres long, on a petiole two to three millimetres long. Flowers are pinkish-purple in bud, purplish-brown after anthesis, and smell of onion. They occur in flower spikes from four to seven centimetres long; unusually for Banksia species they are not upright but hang down. After flowering, old flowers persist on the infructescences, giving them a hairy appearance. B. nutans was first collected from Lucky Bay on 1 January 1802 by Robert Brown. Brown labelled this specimen "Banksia nutans", and later collected another specimen of the same species that he labelled "Banksia platycarpa". The species was published by Brown in 1810 and has since had an unremarkable taxonomic history. Its only synonym is Sirmuellera nutans (R.Br.) Kuntze, which was published by Otto Kuntze as part of his unsuccessful attempt to transfer Banksia to the new generic name Sirmuellera. There are two varieties: B. nutans var. nutans is an autonym that encompasses the type material. B. nutans var. cernuella was published in 1981 by Alex George. It has a shorter perianth and smaller follicles than B. nutans var. nutans. The follicles are usually smooth, whereas those of B. nutans var. nutans tend to be wrinkled. Under Brown's taxonomic arrangement, B.