years old at the time, and about four feet high. It became the basis for a lithographed plate by Walter Hood Fitch, which was featured in Volume 78 of Curtis's Botanical Magazine. By this time, however, the enthusiasm for Proteaceae that prevailed among horticulturalists in the 1840s had waned, and D. nobilis would be the last dryandra to feature in Curtis's Botanical Magazine. Text accompanying Fitch's plate by William Jackson Hooker suggested that Carl Meissner considered their specimen to be the then unpublished species Dryandra runcinata, but this was a mis-identification: D. runcinata is now considered a synonym of Banksia squarrosa rather than this species. The species has had a fairly uneventful taxonomic history since publication, with only three events of taxonomic interest since publication. In 1891, Otto Kuntze made an unsuccessful attempt to transfer the genus Dryandra into the name Josephia, in the process publishing the name Josephia nobilis for this species. That name is now considered a nomenclatural synonym of B. nobilis. In 1996 Alex George published a subspecies, D. nobilis subsp. fragrans (now B. nobilis subsp. fragrans), therefore also invoking the autonym D. nobilis subsp. nobilis (now B. nobilis subsp. nobilis) to encompass the type material. Finally, in 2007 the genus Dryandra was transferred into Banksia by Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele, resulting in the publication of the current name for this species, Banksia nobilis (Lindl.) A.R.Mast & K.R.Thiele. Distribution and habitat Banksia nobilis occurs on lateritic rises from Eneabba in the north to Katanning in the south. Much of its distribution roughly follows the boundary between the Jarrah Forest and Avon Wheatbelt biogeographic regions, but at its northern limits it extends into the Swan Coastal Plain and Geraldton Sandplains. For most of its range it grows in eucalypt woodland and tall shrubland, but at its northern extents it grows among thick kwongan. Conservation Banksia nobilis subsp. nobilis is not currently endangered, and is currently exploited in the wild by the cut flower industry. Banksia nobilis subsp. fragrans has been listed as Priority Three - Poorly Known Taxa on the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation's Declared Rare and Priority Flora List. An assessment of the potential impact of climate change on this species found that severe change is likely to lead to a contraction of its range by up to 80% by 2080; but under less severe change scenarios the distribution may contract slightly or