 The type specimen of Banksia violacea was collected by the West Australian botanist Charles Gardner on 14 December 1926 in the vicinity of Lake Grace . The following year , he published a description of the species in Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Western Australia . He placed it in section Oncostylis of <unk> 's taxonomic arrangement of Banksia , giving it the specific epithet violacea in reference to the violet flowers . Thus the full name of the species , with author citation , is Banksia violacea <unk> The species has been considered a variety of B. sphaerocarpa ( Fox Banksia ) ; this view was published by William <unk> in his 1954 How to know Western Australian <unk> . He considered B. violacea to be a variety of B. sphaerocarpa with violet flowers . This description was an invalid publication , however , and a nomen nudum . In 1981 Alex George declared Banksia sphaerocarpa var. violacea <unk> a <unk> synonym of B. violacea . 
