Banksia serrata v.s Banksia aemula

[bonscythe]

Hi all,
After reading Pup's thread based on B. grandis, I was reminded of a question I had for those knowledgeable on Banksias...is there a tell-tale difference between Banksia aemula and Banksia serrata?
I think I am growing both, without even meaing to
My original Banksia serrata(s) that I bought from a plant nursery on campus at uni seemed to differ slightly from the ones I bought at a later date from a nursery near home, tagged with the Banksia serrata tag. Either due to my acute sense(s) or my pedantic looney-ness (most likely the former) I noticed the two from the local nursery had a more acute tip on the leaves. A friend said they could be B. aemula, of which I had not heard of before. The differences must be slight, so know I wonder how many B. aemulas are being sold as B. serrata?
Apparently the leaves are a bit narrower on the B. aemula also, with less acute serrations along it's margins. I guess I kind of answered my original question.
I like the look of both species, and will add pictures to this sometime soon so it might help others clarify which Banksia spp. they have.
Hope this either interests or helps people somewhat!
Thanks - Pat

[pasquale]

Good question Pat. I am interested in the answer but I suspect it might be hard to tell them apart. According to the anbg site, aemula comes from the Latin ‘aemulus’ meaning like; referring to the similarity of this species to Banksia serrata. According to asgap the main difference between the two species is the length of the pollen presenter! Who said size doesn't matter?

[bonscythe]

Yes, apparently the flowers are slightly brighter in colour too but won't the differences in their infructescences will be hard to judge in bonsai with the interruptions to flowering?

[Grant Bowie]

Culturally I find the B aemula very different to B serrata. The aemula (Wallum banksia; I believe Wallum is aboriginal for swamp) grows in swampy conditions far into Queensland. (It got slightly damaged in a minus 6 frost this year) It used to be called serratafolia for obvious reasons.

It buds too prolifically for me and I am always having to rub off large amounts of buds and it causes swelling and callousing where it buds uncontrollably. I now use tweezers to remove as many buds as possible before they get a wriggle on to reduce callousing.

The leaves are smaller than serrata but as it is so vigorous, therefore having to trim a lot, I doubt if it is going to flower any time soon.

I use my usual amount of fertiliser on the aemula(Osmocote in mix and liquid Maxicrop or equivalent)

The trunk at its base does flair a little but not as much as the serrata.

All in all I find the serrata a better plant but would be interested to hear of others experience.

[pasquale]

Thanks Grant, that is worth knowing.
The challenge is spotting an aemula if it is mislabelled as a serrata. Sounds like it might be a case of suck it and see.