When a friend saw my photo of the Banksia seedpod, she offered me some photos she took of Banksia during a recent trip to Western Australia; The result is here, showing my shot of the empty seedpod, and then from top right, to bottom right, to bottom left, her gorgeous photos of the flowers and of a seedpod still attached to the tree. Not sure which of the many Banksia species, these are.

It is very interesting to me, and no doubt to others, to learn from Don Franklin https://pbase.com/donfranklin) that the 'seedpods' are not really seedpods. They are actually an "infructescence, an aggregate fruit" and are, he tells me, usually called 'cones' though they are not cones either, but no vernacular term exists. Thank you, Don for this really good information. Yet another example of the amazing plants that grow in Australia.