The Banksia tree or woody shrub grows only in Western Australia and Papua New Guinea. I found my Banksia Seed Pod at a neighborhood grocery store in San Francisco! Gotta love this global economy. The Banksia produces a large fruit body or cone which remains after the flower blooms. The cone matures and seeds develop while still on the tree. It is usually the heat of a forest fire that causes the seed case holes to rupture and release their seeds, creating their unique appearance as blackened seed pod lips.
Pod Lips © Yvonne Cornell 2013
Artist Stacey Rees lives in The Grampians, Victoria, Australia where she has first-hand access to native Banksia stems to inspire her illustrations and paintings. Stacey Rees sells this illustration and other work here on Etsy.
© Stacey Rees 2013
Woodworker Russell Haidet designs these unusual teleidoscope (a kind of kaleidoscope) from mature Banksia cones and sells them here on Etsy.
photo: Russell Haidet
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