Species
+

Banksia spinulosa Sm.

golden candlesticks, hairpin banksia, hill banksia

Climate known 59 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Banksia spinulosa, the hairpin banksia, is a species of woody shrub, of the genus Banksia in the family Proteaceae, native to eastern Australia. Widely distributed, it is found as an understorey plant in open dry forest or heathland from Victoria to northern Queensland, generally on sandstone though sometimes also clay soils. It generally grows as a small shrub to 2 metres (7 ft) in height, though can be a straggly tree to 6 metres (20 ft). It has long narrow leaves with inflorescences which can vary considerably in coloration; while the spikes are gold or less commonly yellowish, the emergent styles may be a wide range of colours – from black, purple, red, orange or yellow.

Text from Wikipedia, “Banksia spinulosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Banksia

Banksia is a genus of around 170 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and woody fruiting "cones" and heads. Banksias range in size from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up to 30 metres (100 ft) tall. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Banksia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Proteaceae
Described by
Sm.
Native to
New South Wales, Queensland
Wild records
1587 in range· 1334 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Jan, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1028mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 131 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–42DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1028 mm a year, wettest February at 131 mm, driest September at 57 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 4.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Banksia cunninghamii Sieber ex Spreng.; Banksia denticulata Dum.Cours.; Banksia incognita Anon.; Banksia spinulosa var. spinulosa; Sirmuellera spinulosa (Sm.) Kuntze.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (768 mm of 1028 mm) takes 8 months, November to June. Mean temperature moves 10.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to December.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1028 mm a year, wettest February at 131 mm, driest September at 57 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1028 mm a year at the habitat, 768 mm of it November to June. Wettest month February at 131 mm, driest September at 57 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 829 mm to 1348 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 4.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 4.4 °C, the absolute minimum 0.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 2.6 °C to 10.8 °C), warmest day 25.4 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 15 °C in Jul to 25 °C in Jan; mean night from 7 °C in Jul to 18 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1028 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 725 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 0.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)0.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 16–42RH 56–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 725 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 24–2825 / 23–2723 / 21–2520 / 18–2318 / 14–2015 / 11–1815 / 11–1816 / 12–1919 / 15–2221 / 18–2422 / 20–2524 / 22–27
Night °C18 / 14–2118 / 14–2116 / 12–1913 / 9–1710 / 6–158 / 4–127 / 3–117 / 3–1110 / 5–1412 / 8–1614 / 10–1716 / 12–19
Rain mm92 / 72–143131 / 96–18195 / 66–15897 / 62–13982 / 57–12582 / 59–11562 / 44–8660 / 46–7457 / 47–7181 / 65–9499 / 81–12390 / 76–137
DLI41 / 40–4235 / 34–3730 / 29–3224 / 23–2718 / 17–2216 / 14–2018 / 17–2124 / 22–2731 / 30–3437 / 36–3840 / 39–4142 / 41–43
RH %61 / 58–6363 / 60–6462 / 60–6361 / 59–6261 / 59–6359 / 57–6358 / 56–6256 / 55–5956 / 55–5857 / 55–5960 / 57–6160 / 57–62

Each figure is the median across the 725 grid cells holding the 1575 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2472:6621 (-33.625, 151.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 725 distinct grid cells holding the 1575 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2472:6621 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -33.50_151.250, lapse-corrected +73 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 172 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew South Wales, Queensland
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.781, 150.637 · in the densest population, 1203 records (76% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1587 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1334 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 291 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1587 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Banksia spinulosaBanksia spinulosaBanksia spinulosaBanksia spinulosaBanksia spinulosaBanksia spinulosaBanksia spinulosaBanksia spinulosa

Photographs: (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Banksia spinulosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Evidence for selective fruit abortion in Banksia spinulosa (Proteaceae)
Glenda Vaughton, Susan M. Carthew (1993) · Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Seed Mass Variation in the Shrub Banksia spinulosa (Proteaceae): Resource Constraints and Pollen Source Effects
Glenda Vaughton, Mike Ramsey (1997) · International Journal of Plant Sciences
Transfer of Banksia-Spinulosa Pollen by Mammals - Implications for Pollination
Ross L. Goldingay, SM Carthew, RJ Whelan (1987) · Australian Journal of Zoology
Pollination and Seed Set of Banksia spinulosa : Evidence for Autogamy
Glenda Vaughton (1988) · Australian Journal of Botany

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Banksia 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 28 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.