Banksia ilicifolia is a tree in the family Proteaceae. Endemic to southwest Western Australia, it belongs to Banksia subg. Isostylis, a subgenus of three closely related Banksia species with inflorescences that are dome-shaped heads rather than characteristic Banksia flower spikes. It is generally a tree up to 10 metres (33 ft) tall with a columnar or irregular habit. Both the scientific and common names arise from the similarity of its foliage to that of the English holly Ilex aquifolium; the glossy green leaves generally have very prickly serrated margins, although some plants lack toothed leaves. The inflorescences are initially yellow but become red-tinged with maturity; this acts as a signal to alert birds that the flowers have opened and nectar is available. Robert Brown described Banksia ilicifolia in 1810. Although the tree is variable in growth form, with low coastal shrubby forms on the south coast near Albany, there are no recognised varieties as such. Distributed broadly, the species is restricted to sandy soils. Unlike its close relatives which are killed by fire and repopulate from seed, Banksia ilicifolia regenerates after bushfire by regrowing from epicormic buds under its bark.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia_ilicifolia
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1775:
Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of the British Colony of Virginia, signed a proclamation promising freedom for slaves of Patriots if they joined the British Armed Forces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunmore%27s_Proclamation
1861:
American Civil War: Future U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant engaged in his first combat leadership role in the Battle of Belmont in Mississippi County, Missouri. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Belmont
1917:
Vladimir Lenin led a Bolshevik insurrection against the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky, starting the Bolshevik Revolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution
1987:
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali deposed and replaced Habib Bourguiba as President of Tunisia, declaring him medically unfit for the duties of the office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine_El_Abidine_Ben_Ali
2007:
A Finnish high school student shot and killed eight people at Jokela High School in Tuusula before committing suicide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jokela_school_shooting
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
megaron: (architecture, historical) The rectangular great hall in a Mycenaean building, usually supported with pillars. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/megaron
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I don’t know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I cannot know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms. What I touch, what resists me — that I understand. And these two certainties — my appetite for the absolute and for unity and the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle — I also know that I cannot reconcile them. What other truth can I admit without lying, without bringing in a hope I lack and which means nothing within the limits of my conditions? --Albert Camus https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Camus