Thysanotus banksii

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Thysanotus banksii is a flowering plant native to Australia and New Guinea. It’s a clumping perennial herb with a small rootstock and fibrous roots. It has 3–5 narrow, channelled leaves that are about 20–60 cm long and 1 mm wide. The purple flowers grow in small groups of one or two on short stalks (5–10 mm long). Each flower has long, fringed petals and lance-shaped sepals about 2 mm wide. The petals are about 5 mm wide with a fringe about 1 mm long. There are six stamens and a style about 5 mm long. The seeds are roughly spherical, 1.5–2.0 mm in diameter, with a straw-coloured aril.

Robert Brown first described the species in 1810, and the name banksii honours Joseph Banks. Thysanotus banksii grows in forests, moist tea-tree flats, and on pebbly ridges from Rockingham Bay to Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland, as well as on Torres Strait islands and southern New Guinea. It is considered of least concern in Queensland.