Another thank you to Eric in SF@Flickr or PlantWorld for contributing an image to BPotD (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool. Much appreciated!
It's been a bit of a trend on BPotD lately to feature plants with flower colours different than what is usually encountered. The cut-leaf banksia in today's photograph illustrates the infrequently-found yellow-flowered variation of this species. The Flora of Australia Online describes the flower colour of Banksia praemorsa as follows: “Flowers red-maroon where exposed, otherwise pale greenish yellow, pink inside; limb greenish; rarely all yellow”. The typical red-maroon coloured flower can be seen on the Association of Societies for Growing Australian Plant's page on Banksia praemorsa.
The ASGAP page also explains the epithet praemorsa, which means “bitten off”. This is in reference to the leaves. Photographs of the leaves are available via FloraBase: Banksia praemorsa. This latter link also shows a detailed distribution map for this species, which is native to a strip of wooded or shrubby land along the southern coast of Western Australia.
What an awesome picture of an awesome blossom. I think it is also nice to have the bee there for scale. Is each one of those bristles hollow with nectar in them for the bees, or pollen I guess, or is it between the bristles. Very interesting plant. Thanks for showing me something new yet again.
This has been photographed on Banksia Farm Mt. Barker
The bees were diving into the deepest parts of the inflorescence and coming back out. I probably have a shot of a disappearing bee-butt from the same day! =)
It looks like the bee is doing some weaving,working it's way up the plant.
Hands up everyone who wishes they could be a bee for a day!
Call on me! Call on me!
Ah ha! So this was the inspiration for the drive-through car wash.
Alrightey - I did shoot bee-butts!
View Large size to see them clearly. =)
What a great Photo and with such brillant colour and with the blue sky. It is great to see the bee as it shows how large the flower is.
Thank you
Margaret-Rae
What a nice surprise to see a BPotD taken at the Arboretum here on campus, which inspired me to do two things. First I emailed our UCSC Arboretum staff, they were unfamilar with BPotD and very pleasantly surprised. Secondly I realize I need to take more walks through the UCSC Arboretum, and appreciate the wonderful resource so easily available to me. Thanks - judy