Banksia epica is a shrub that grows on the south coast of Western Australia. A spreading bush with wedge-shaped serrated leaves and large creamy-yellow flower spikes, it grows as a spreading bushy shrub with many branches, from 30 centimetres to 3½ metres (1–11½ ft) tall. It has grey, fissured bark, and dark green, wedge-shaped leaves, 1½ to 5 centimetres (½–2 in) long. Flowers occur in Banksia's characteristic "flower spike", an inflorescence made up of hundreds of pairs of flowers densely packed in a spiral round a woody axis. B. epica's flower spike is yellow or cream-yellow in colour, cylindrical, 9 to 17 centimetres (3½–6½ inches) tall and around 6 centimetres (2½ inches) in diameter. It is known only from two isolated populations in the remote south east of the state, near the western edge of the Great Australian Bight. Both populations occur amongst coastal heath on cliff-top dunes of siliceous sand. One of the most recently described Banksia species, it was probably seen by Edward John Eyre in 1841, but was not collected until 1973, and was only recognised as a distinct species in 1988. There has been very little research on the species since.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia_epica

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

759:

Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu departed for Chengdu, staying with his fellow poet Pei Di, where he composed poems about life in his thatched cottage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_Fu

1818:

"Silent Night" (audio featured), a Christmas carol by Josef Mohr and Franz Gruber, was first performed in a church in Austria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Night

1913:

Seventy-three people were crushed to death in a stampede after someone falsely yelled "fire" at a crowded Christmas party in Calumet, Michigan, US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Hall_disaster

1953:

On New Zealand's North Island, at Tangiwai, a railway bridge was damaged by a lahar and collapsed beneath a passenger train, killing 151 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangiwai_disaster

1973:

The United States Congress granted Washington, D.C. home rule, allowing the residents to elect their own mayor and city council. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_home_rule

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

bullshot: 1. A cocktail made from vodka and beef bouillon. 2. (neologism, video games) A phony screenshot created for promotional purposes. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bullshot

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

 If what distinguishes the greatest poets is their powerful and profound application of ideas to life, which surely no good critic will deny, then to prefix to the word ideas here the term moral makes hardly any difference, because human life itself is in so preponderating a degree moral. It is important, therefore, to hold fast to this: that poetry is at bottom a criticism of life; that the greatness of a poet lies in his powerful and beautiful application of ideas to life — to the question, How to live. Morals are often treated in a narrow and false fashion, they are bound up with systems of thought and belief which have had their day, they are fallen into the hands of pedants and professional dealers, they grow tiresome to some of us … the best cure for our delusion is to let our minds rest upon that great and inexhaustible word life, until we learn to enter into its meaning. A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life; a poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of indifference towards life.   --Matthew Arnold https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold