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Banksia spinulosa var. cunninghamii

variety of plants

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ4856725
Source-derived summary

Banksia spinulosa var. cunninghamii, sometimes given species rank as Banksia cunninghamii, is a shrub that grows along the east coast of Australia, in Victoria and New South Wales. It is a fast-growing non-lignotuberous shrub or small tree infrequently cultivated.

Description

As with the other varieties of B. spinulosa (hairpin banksia), B. spinulosa var. collina grows as a multi-stemmed shrub with flower spikes that are all golden or golden with red or purple styles. Its leaves, flowers and fruit are all very similar to though of B. neoanglica (Hill Banksia), but unlike this and all other varieties of B. spinulosa, B. spinulosa var. cunninghamii lacks a lignotuber.

Taxonomy

B. spinulosa var. cunninghamii was first collected by Franz Sieber in 1823, from Mount York in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. He gave it the name Banksia cunninghamii in honour of Allan Cunningham, and this name was honoured when a formal description of the taxon was published by Ludwig Reichenbach in 1827.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Banksia spinulosa var. cunninghamii” as variety of plants. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1823, 1827—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Banksia, spinulosa and cunninghamii can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as variety of plants. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4856725. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1823 and 1827.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Banksia spinulosa var. cunninghamii”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Banksia spinulosa var. cunninghamii primary sources, Banksia spinulosa var. cunninghamii archive and Banksia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Banksia spinulosa var. cunninghamii” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.