long thin perianth topped by a prominent limb resembles a matchstick, which explains one common name for this species. At first, the perianth is mostly cream, being pink only near its base; it later becomes pink throughout. The style is initially cream, but turns red; the pollen presenter is green. Old flowers soon fall from the flower heads (often called cones at this stage), revealing a woody base which may have up to five follicles embedded in it. These are a mottled grey colour, smooth, felted with short fine hairs, and measure from high, along the seam, and across the seam. Each follicle contains up to two seeds; these are roughly triangular in shape, with a large papery wing. Banksia cuneata is most easily distinguished from the other two species in B. subg. Isostylis by its brighter flowers and duller leaves. It further differs from B. ilicifolia in its smaller habit; its smooth bark; its smaller leaves, flowers and fruit; and in its sequence of flower colour changes. The leaves, flowers and fruit of B. oligantha are smaller still, and its foliage is not as prickly as that of B. cuneata. Taxonomy Discovery and naming The earliest known specimen collection of B. cuneata was made by Julia Wells some time before 1880. What would later become the type specimen for the species was collected by Western Australian botanist and Banksia expert Alex George on 20 November 1971, from Badjaling Nature Reserve, about east of Quairading, at . The species was finally published by George nearly a decade later, in his 1981 monograph "The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)". The specific epithet is from the Latin cuneatus ("wedge-shaped"), in reference to the shape of the leaves. The species has an uneventful nomenclatural history: it has no synonyms, and no subspecies or varieties have been published. It bears the common names of Matchstick Banksia or Quairading Banksia. Infrageneric placement George placed B. cuneata in subgenus Isostylis because of its dome-shaped flower heads. A 1996 cladistic analysis of the genus by botanists Kevin Thiele and Pauline Ladiges yielded no information about the circumscription of B. subg. Isostylis, nor of the relationships within it, so George's placement of this species was retained in their arrangement. That arrangement was not accepted by George, and was largely discarded by him in his 1999 arrangement. The placement of B. cuneata there was unaffected, and can be summarised as