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Banksia attenuata; photograph (c) Chantel McWilliam, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Chantel McWilliam, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-06

Banksia attenuata R.Br.

Coast banksia; Slender banksia; Candlestick Banksia

Proteaceae · Western Australia

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Banksia attenuata, photograph (c) Chantel McWilliam, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia attenuata, photograph (c) Chantel McWilliam, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia attenuata, photograph (c) Chantel McWilliam, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia attenuata, photograph (c) Millie Brady, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia attenuata, photograph (c) Millie Brady, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia attenuata, photograph (c) smathichong, some rights reserved (CC BY) 64 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.2°C
Record low 3.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
683mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–53DLI
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 winters: the rain comes November to March (May to September at the habitat), read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Banksia attenuata, commonly known as the candlestick banksia, slender banksia, or biara to the Noongar people, is a species of plant in the family Proteaceae. Commonly a tree, it reaches 10 m (33 ft) high, but it is often a shrub in drier areas 0.4 to 2 m (1.3 to 6.6 ft) high. It has long, narrow, serrated leaves and bright yellow inflorescences, or flower spikes, held above the foliage, which appear in spring and summer. The flower spikes age to grey and swell with the development of the woody follicles. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Banksia attenuata", 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 winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (499 mm of 658 mm) falls in May to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.8 °C against a yearly mean of 17.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

658 mm in the median year at the habitat, 499 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 122 mm, driest month December at 11 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 424 mm to 908 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 683 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 658 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: 16 to 53 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.2 °C, the absolute minimum 3.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 8.8 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 5.9 °C to 10.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.2 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.2 °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: 52 to 59% 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 -7 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 attenuata through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month August, mean nightly low 8.8 °C; 658 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°10°20°30°40°37.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER3.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 16–53RH 52–59%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 510 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 °C29 / 23–3329 / 23–3328 / 22–3124 / 21–2720 / 18–2217 / 15–1916 / 14–1716 / 15–1818 / 16–2021 / 17–2424 / 19–2827 / 21–31
Night °C18 / 14–1918 / 15–2017 / 14–1914 / 11–1612 / 9–1410 / 7–129 / 6–119 / 6–1110 / 7–1212 / 9–1314 / 11–1616 / 13–18
Rain mm15 / 8–2414 / 12–2221 / 17–4335 / 22–5488 / 55–123119 / 66–168122 / 67–169101 / 58–13769 / 38–9937 / 19–6126 / 14–4511 / 8–28
DLI53 / 45–5347 / 39–4739 / 31–4028 / 22–3020 / 16–2316 / 14–1917 / 14–1922 / 19–2530 / 25–3341 / 33–4448 / 40–5053 / 44–54
RH %52 / 49–5852 / 49–5953 / 50–5955 / 53–5956 / 55–6058 / 56–6159 / 56–6258 / 56–6158 / 56–6056 / 54–5954 / 51–5953 / 50–58
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 510 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1082 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 2468:5915 (-33.425, 115.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.3 °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 510 distinct grid cells holding 1082 of the 1083 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2468:5915 (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 -33.50_115.625, lapse-corrected -7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 51 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.
NativeWestern Australia · 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-32.003, 115.842 · in the densest population, 826 records (59% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1409 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1082 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1083 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1158 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 15 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 326 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 of the 1409 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 attenuata, photograph 1did not loadBanksia attenuata, photograph 2did not loadBanksia attenuata, photograph 3did not loadBanksia attenuata, photograph 4did not loadBanksia attenuata, photograph 5did not loadBanksia attenuata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Chantel McWilliam, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Millie Brady, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) smathichong, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Melaleuca rhaphiophylla Melaleuca rhaphiophylla Swamp Paperbark Photo: CC BY, Millie BradyGompholobium tomentosum Gompholobium tomentosum Hairy yellow pea Photo: CC BY, KhandsDrosera neesii Drosera neesii Jewel Rainbow Photo: CC BY, Hugo InnesKunzea glabrescens Kunzea glabrescens Spearwood Photo: CC BY, Millie BradyAnigozanthos manglesii Anigozanthos manglesii Mangles's kangaroo-paw Photo: CC BY, Millie BradyDrosera nitidula Drosera nitidula Droseraceae Photo: CC BY, Em Lamond

Other Banksia 74 in the reference

Banksia aculeata Banksia aculeata Prickly banksia Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyBanksia aemula Banksia aemula Wallum Banksia Photo: CC BY-SA, James K. DouchBanksia ashbyi Banksia ashbyi Ashby's banksia Photo: CC0, author not statedBanksia 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 cylindrostachya; Sirmuellera attenuata. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Proteaceae
Described by
R.Br.
Native to
Western Australia
Wild records
1409 in range · 1158 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; 185 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (167 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 14 at a herbarium, 4 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 -33.50_115.625, lapse-corrected -7 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 25 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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