date, the National Herbarium of New South Wales continues to treat this taxon as having species rank, referring to it as B. cunninghamii. Moreover, B. neoanglica is treated as a subspecies of it; this placement has no formal name, so is referred to by the manuscript name Banksia cunninghamii subsp. A sensu Harden. A 2013 molecular study by Marcel Cardillo and colleagues using chloroplast DNA and combining it with earlier results placed B. cunninghamii as the earliest offshoot of a lineage that gave rise to the three other subspecies of B. spinulosa. Distribution and habitat This taxon occurs along the coast from Melbourne, Victoria to the northern boundary of New South Wales, with large populations east of Melbourne, along the coast near the boundary of Victoria and New South Wales, and around Sydney. There are also many records of collections of this species in mountainous areas of northern New South Wales, but these probably need to be re-classified as B. neoanglica. It mainly grows in sand, often over rock, but is also found in heavier soils. It is usually an understory shrub in open forests and woodlands of Eucalyptus. Cultivation B. spinulosa var. cunninghamii is a fast-growing shrub that flowers in around five years from seed. The flower spikes are attractive but are often obscured by foliage. It prefers a well-drained heavy soil with some shade, and tolerates frost down to . It should be pruned only lightly, and not below the green foliage. References External links Banksia cunninghamii Sieber ex Rchb., PlantNET: The Plant Information Network System of the Botanic Gardens Trust. spinulosa var. cunninghamii Flora of New South Wales Flora of Queensland