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Banksia aemula; photograph (c) James K. Douch, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) James K. Douch, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-04-29

Banksia aemula R.Br.

Wallum Banksia

Proteaceae · New South Wales, Queensland

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Banksia aemula, photograph (c) James K. Douch, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Banksia aemula, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia aemula, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia aemula, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia aemula, photograph (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia aemula, photograph (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY) 91 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
8.0°C
Record low 5.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,337mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
19–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to November (November to May at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Banksia aemula, commonly known as the wallum banksia, is a shrub of the family Proteaceae. Found from Bundaberg south to Sydney on the Australian east coast, it is encountered as a shrub or a tree to 8 m (26 ft) in coastal heath on deep sandy soil, known as Wallum. It has wrinkled orange bark and shiny green serrated leaves, with green-yellow flower spikes, known as inflorescences, appearing in autumn. The flower spikes turn grey as they age and large grey follicles appear. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Banksia aemula", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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 ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Banksia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (955 mm of 1,339 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.8 °C against a yearly mean of 19.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to November.

Rain

1,339 mm in the median year at the habitat, 955 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 176 mm, driest month September at 55 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,043 mm to 1,574 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,337 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,339 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 8.0 °C, the absolute minimum 5.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 9.5 °C to 14.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.2 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -59 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Banksia aemula through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 11.6 °C; 1,339 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°35°40°35.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER5.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 19–42RH 55–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 356 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 25–2926 / 24–2825 / 23–2723 / 21–2521 / 19–2319 / 16–2118 / 16–2019 / 17–2121 / 19–2422 / 21–2624 / 22–2725 / 24–29
Night °C21 / 20–2321 / 20–2320 / 19–2218 / 16–2015 / 13–1813 / 11–1512 / 10–1412 / 10–1514 / 12–1716 / 15–1918 / 17–2120 / 19–22
Rain mm130 / 89–160176 / 140–212150 / 101–192137 / 89–167127 / 86–161108 / 60–13274 / 42–9263 / 43–7355 / 43–6784 / 71–96111 / 93–135124 / 82–163
DLI41 / 40–4337 / 35–3832 / 31–3426 / 24–2821 / 19–2419 / 16–2121 / 18–2327 / 24–2934 / 31–3638 / 37–4040 / 39–4242 / 41–43
RH %61 / 60–6362 / 61–6361 / 60–6360 / 59–6259 / 58–6158 / 57–5956 / 55–5855 / 54–5657 / 55–5859 / 57–6060 / 58–6161 / 59–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 356 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1369 records in those cells; 6 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2387:6665 (-29.375, 153.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 356 distinct grid cells holding 1369 of the 1376 in-range records (6 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2387:6665 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -29.50_153.125, lapse-corrected -59 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 6 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew South Wales, Queensland · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-32.799, 151.827 · in the densest population, 1043 records (73% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1429 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1369 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1376 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1178 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 21 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 53 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1429 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Banksia aemula, photograph 1did not loadBanksia aemula, photograph 2did not loadBanksia aemula, photograph 3did not loadBanksia aemula, photograph 4did not loadBanksia aemula, photograph 5did not loadBanksia aemula, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) James K. Douch, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Petra Holland, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Leptospermum liversidgei Leptospermum liversidgei Lemon-scented Tea-tree Photo: CC0, author not statedXanthorrhoea fulva Xanthorrhoea fulva Swamp grasstree Photo: CC BY, Scott W. GavinsStyphelia margarodes Styphelia margarodes Pearl beard heath Photo: CC BY, Caleb CattoMelaleuca pachyphylla Melaleuca pachyphylla Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Akos KokaiAlectryon coriaceus Alectryon coriaceus Beach bird's-eye Photo: CC BY, smathichongTelmatoblechnum indicum Telmatoblechnum indicum Swamp water fern Photo: CC BY, John Barkla

Other Banksia 74 in the reference

Banksia aculeata Banksia aculeata Prickly banksia Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyBanksia ashbyi Banksia ashbyi Ashby's banksia Photo: CC0, author not statedBanksia attenuata Banksia attenuata Coast banksia Photo: CC BY, Chantel McWilliamBanksia baueri Banksia baueri Woolly Banksia Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyBanksia baxteri Banksia baxteri Baxter's banksia Photo: CC BY, Em LamondBanksia benthamiana Banksia benthamiana Proteaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, CasliberBanksia blechnifolia Banksia blechnifolia Proteaceae Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyBanksia brownii Banksia brownii Brown’s Banksia Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyBanksia burdettii Banksia burdettii Burdett's banksia Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyBanksia caleyi Banksia caleyi Cayley's Banksia Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyBanksia candolleana Banksia candolleana Propeller banksia Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyBanksia canei Banksia canei Mountain Banksia Photo: CC BY, Petra Holland all 75 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Banksia elatior; Banksia serratifolia; Banksia serrifolia; Sirmuellera serratifolia. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Banksia serrata Cav. is an older name of this species, not Banksia serrata, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Proteaceae
Described by
R.Br.
Native to
New South Wales, Queensland
Wild records
1429 in range · 1178 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 16 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 6 at a herbarium, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -29.50_153.125, lapse-corrected -59 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 27 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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