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Banksia media; photograph (c) Em Lamond, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Em Lamond, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-10-11

Banksia media R.Br.

Proteaceae · Western Australia

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Banksia media, photograph (c) Em Lamond, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia media, photograph (c) Em Lamond, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia media, photograph (c) Em Lamond, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia media, photograph (c) Tyler Anthony, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia media, photograph (c) Tyler Anthony, some rights reserved (CC BY)Banksia media, photograph (c) Tyler Anthony, some rights reserved (CC BY) 57 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
2.9°C
Record low 0.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
439mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–47DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Banksia media, the southern plains banksia or golden stalk banksia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae. An evergreen shrub, it occurs on the south coast of Western Australia between Albany and Israelite Bay, where it is a common plant. A many-branched bush with wedge-shaped serrated leaves and large golden-yellow flower spikes, known as inflorescences, it grows up to 10 metres (30 ft) high.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Banksia media", 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 no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (333 mm of 438 mm) takes 8 months, January and May to November. Mean temperature moves 9.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to May and July.

Rain

438 mm in the median year at the habitat, 333 mm of it January and May to November. Wettest month July at 50 mm, driest months (2 at 21 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 363 mm to 542 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 439 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 438 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: 15 to 47 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 2.9 °C, the absolute minimum 0.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.2 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 5.9 °C to 10.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.9 °C in January and February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.9 °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: 56 to 58% 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 +19 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 media through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 7.2 °C; 438 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER0.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075mm rainDLI 15–47RH 56–58%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 315 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 °C27 / 23–2927 / 24–2825 / 23–2622 / 21–2319 / 18–1916 / 15–1715 / 14–1616 / 15–1718 / 17–1921 / 19–2224 / 20–2525 / 22–27
Night °C15 / 15–1716 / 15–1715 / 14–1613 / 12–1510 / 9–138 / 7–117 / 6–107 / 6–109 / 7–1110 / 9–1212 / 12–1414 / 13–15
Rain mm33 / 25–3921 / 18–2532 / 25–3831 / 25–3848 / 38–6145 / 36–6550 / 41–6848 / 39–6442 / 32–5234 / 24–4133 / 26–3721 / 17–26
DLI47 / 46–4942 / 40–4433 / 32–3424 / 24–2518 / 17–1815 / 15–1616 / 16–1621 / 20–2129 / 27–2937 / 35–3843 / 42–4447 / 46–49
RH %56 / 53–5957 / 54–5957 / 55–5957 / 56–5958 / 57–5858 / 57–6058 / 57–6057 / 56–5957 / 55–5956 / 54–5856 / 53–5856 / 53–58
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 315 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (515 records in those cells; 5 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 2469:6024 (-33.475, 121.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.7 °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 315 distinct grid cells holding 515 of the 521 in-range records (5 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2469:6024 (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_121.250, lapse-corrected +19 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 169 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-33.953, 119.585 · in the densest population, 407 records (68% 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 599 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 515 of them in the land cells it reads, of 521 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 519 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 45 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 78 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 599 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 media, photograph 1did not loadBanksia media, photograph 2did not loadBanksia media, photograph 3did not loadBanksia media, photograph 4did not loadBanksia media, photograph 5did not loadBanksia media, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Em Lamond, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Tyler Anthony, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Melaleuca glaberrima Melaleuca glaberrima Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Ian McMasterNematolepis phebalioides Nematolepis phebalioides Rutaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, James (Jim) DugganAcacia glaucoptera Acacia glaucoptera Clay Wattle Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyHakea verrucosa Hakea verrucosa Proteaceae Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyEucalyptus proxima Eucalyptus proxima Nodding Mallee Photo: CC0, author not statedEucalyptus kessellii Eucalyptus kessellii Jerdacuttup mallee Photo: CC BY, Tyler Anthony

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 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 Anthony all 75 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Sirmuellera media. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Proteaceae
Described by
R.Br.
Native to
Western Australia
Wild records
599 in range · 519 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; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a herbarium; 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_121.250, lapse-corrected +19 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21found by its label; its IPNI identifier 703138-1 is Kew's for Banksia media R.Br.
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 19 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…