Dryandra ser. Floribundae facts for kids
Dryandra ser. Floribundae was an old way of grouping certain plants. These plants used to be part of a group called Dryandra. But now, all Dryandra plants are considered part of the Banksia plant family.
This specific grouping, Dryandra ser. Floribundae, was first described by a scientist named George Bentham in 1870. Later, in 1996, another scientist, Alex George, changed how this group was defined. Finally, in 2007, Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele decided that all Dryandra plants should be moved into the Banksia family. This meant the old Dryandra ser. Floribundae group was no longer used.
Contents
How George Bentham Grouped Them
George Bentham was a botanist who studied plants. In 1870, he created the Dryandra ser. Floribundae group. He included plants whose flowers were very easy to see. This was because their special leaves around the flowers were either very short or spread out.
Some of the plants Bentham put in this group included:
- D. floribunda (which is now called B. sessilis var. sessilis)
- D. carduacea (now B. squarrosa subsp. squarrosa)
- D. carlinoides (now B. carlinoides)
- D. polycephala (now B. polycephala)
- D. Kippistiana (now B. kippistiana)
How Alex George Changed the Grouping
Bentham's way of grouping plants stayed the same for a long time. But in 1996, Alex George made his own changes to the Dryandra groups.
George moved some of the plants that Bentham had put in Dryandra ser. Floribundae to other groups. For example, he moved D. carduacea and D. polycephala to a group called D. ser. Armatae. He also moved D. carlinoides and D. kippistiana to D. ser. Acrodontae.
After these changes, only one plant, D. sessilis (which was D. floribundae in Bentham's time), was left in the Dryandra ser. Floribundae group. George described this group based on the special features of D. sessilis. He noted that it was unique because it seemed to have no floral bracts (small leaf-like structures near the flowers).
The varieties of D. sessilis that were in this group included:
- D. sessilis var. sessilis (now B. sessilis var. sessilis)
- D. sessilis var. flabellifolia (now B. sessilis var. flabellifolia)
- D. sessilis var. cordata (now B. sessilis var. cordata)
- D. sessilis var. cygnorum (now B. sessilis var. cygnorum)
Why the Grouping is No Longer Used
Since 1998, scientists like Austin Mast have been using DNA information to study how plants are related. Their research showed something very interesting: the Dryandra plants actually grew out of the Banksia family. This means Dryandra was not a completely separate group, but rather a part of Banksia.
Because of this new DNA evidence, Mast and Kevin Thiele decided in 2007 to combine Dryandra with Banksia. All Dryandra plants are now officially part of the Banksia family. This change meant that the old ways of grouping plants within Dryandra, like D. ser. Floribundae, are no longer used by scientists today.
Images for kids
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Banksia sessilis (also known as Dryandra sessilis or Dryandra floribunda)
