genus Banksia in the Proteaceae family. It is native to the southwest of
Western Australia and can reach up to 3 m (10 ft) in height, or even
5 m (16 ft) in sheltered areas; it is shorter in more exposed areas.
This species has elliptic green leaves and large, bright golden yellow
flower spikes that appear in summer and autumn. The New Holland
honeyeater (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) is the most prominent
pollinator although several other species of honeyeater, as well as
bees, visit the flower spikes. Listed as a vulnerable species by the
Australian Government, it occurs in two disjunct populations on granite
outcrops along the south coast of Western Australia, with the main
population near Albany and a smaller population near Walpole. It is
threatened by root rot (specifically Phytophthora cinnamomi) and aerial
canker (Zythiostroma). B. verticillata is killed by bushfire, following
which new plants regenerate from seed. Populations take over a decade to
produce seed, and fire intervals of more than twenty years are needed to
allow the canopy seed bank to accumulate.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksia_verticillata>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
202 BC:
Publius Cornelius Scipio, a consul of the Roman Republic,
decisively defeated Hannibal and the Carthaginians at Zama, ending the
Second Punic War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Zama>
1469:
Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella I of Castile (both
pictured), a marriage that paved the way to the unification of Aragon
and Castile into a single country, Spain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_I_of_Castile>
1781:
American Revolutionary War: British forces led by Lord
Cornwallis officially surrendered to Franco-American forces under George
Washington, ending the Siege of Yorktown.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown>
1943:
Allied aircraft sank the cargo ship Sinfra, killing over 2,000
people, mostly Italian POWs.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Sinfra>
2005:
Hurricane Wilma became the most intense Atlantic hurricane on
record with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 882 mbar.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Wilma>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
cacoethes:
1. Compulsion; mania.
2. (medicine, obsolete) A bad quality or disposition in a disease; a
malignant tumour or ulcer.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cacoethes>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of an
opinion, or be angry with his judgement for not agreeing with me in
that, from which perhaps within a few days I should dissent myself.
--Thomas Browne
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne>
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