Banksia pilostylis

Banksia pilostylis is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 4 m (13 ft) and has hard, fissured bark but does not form a lignotuber. The leaves are serrated, narrow wedge-shaped, 50–160 mm (2.0–6.3 in) long and 5–20 mm (0.20–0.79 in) wide on a petiole 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) long. The flowers are pale yellow and closely packed in a cylindrical spike 50–100 mm (2.0–3.9 in) long and 50–55 mm (2.0–2.2 in) wide with hairy involucral bracts 5–20 mm (0.20–0.79 in) long at the base of the spike. The perianth is 20–24 mm (0.79–0.94 in) long and the pistil 23–27 mm (0.91–1.06 in) long and curved. Flowering occurs from October to January and up to twenty-five elliptical follicles 22–35 mm (0.87–1.38 in) long and 10–16 mm (0.39–0.63 in) wide, surrounded by the remains of the flowers, develop in each spike. The follicles usually remain closed until the plant is killed in a bushfire.^[2][3][4][5]

Banksia pilostylis was first formally described in 1964 by Charles Gardner in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia from specimens he collected in October 1960.^[4][6][7] The specific epithet (pilostylis) is from Latin and refers to the hairy style.^[8]

In 1981, George placed this species in the series Cyrtostylis. Cladistic analysis in a 1996 paper by Kevin Thiele and Pauline Ladiges confirmed that placement.^[9]

This banksia grow in shrubland and low woodland near the south coast of Western Australia between Ravenshorpe and Israelite Bay.^[3]