Can Banksia be eaten?
Food: The nectar from banksia flowers is a good source of food for birds and other small animals. The seeds of some banksia species are also edible, and can be eaten raw, roasted, or ground into flour. Medicine: Some banksia species have been used in traditional Aboriginal medicine. Banksias are much loved by birds, particularly cockatoos, who break off the cone-like woody remains of Banksia flowers to eat the seeds and insect larvae that populate the cones. Indigenous people of south-western Australia eat the flower spikes nectar. They also soaked the flower spikes in water to make a sweet drink.Food: The nectar from banksia flowers is a good source of food for birds and other small animals. The seeds of some banksia species are also edible, and can be eaten raw, roasted, or ground into flour. Medicine: Some banksia species have been used in traditional Aboriginal medicine.You can use the flowers of silver banksias and swamp banksias for this, too. The sweet nectar of Banksia flowers can be obtained by sucking the flower or by soaking the flowers in water to make a sweet drink. The sweet drink of the Banksia flowers is sometimes mixed with wattle gum.
What is Banksia fruit?
The fruit of the Banksia is a cone and these strange woody fruits make them very distinctive. In most species, these cones remain firmly closed on the plant for many years until fire causes the cones to open and the seed to release. Banksia. The genus Banksia was named after Joseph Banks, the botanist. The genus Banksia. There are 173 Banksia species, and all but one occur naturally only in Australia. Banksias were named after Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820 ), who, in 1770, was the first European to collect specimens of these plants.