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Definition of "banksia" []

  • Any of various Australian evergreen shrubs or trees of the genus Banksia, having narrow, spiny or toothed leaves, showy, dense clusters of usually yellow flowers, and small fruits in conelike clusters. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "banksia" in a sentence
  • "The banksia is a paltry tree, about the size of an apple-tree in an English or French orchard, perfectly useless as timber, but affording an inexhaustible supply of firewood."
  • "We had different kinds of encounters with four or five different types of treesome we gently brushed againstand then there was a more coercive meeting with a big banksia whose scaly, knobbly bark left a passage of black scales on the paper as if a huge reptile had passed over it."
  • "Comprises seven main vegetation types: closed forest including rain forest and tall eucalypt forest dominated by satinay and brushwood; blackbutt forest; scribbly gum and wallum banksia communities; communities of wet sites often dominated by Melaleuca spp.; coastal communities; Callitris forest and woodlands; and mangrove and salt marsh."