Each head contain from 50 to 70 flowers, arranged in a ring about a central hollow, in the manner normally associated with members of the former series Dryandra ser.

[2][3] As in all Proteaceae, individual flowers consist of a tubular perianth made up of four united tepals fused with the anthers, and one long wiry pistil.

The pistil end is initially trapped inside the upper perianth parts, but breaks free at anthesis.

[2][3] First collected by Ludwig Preiss near the Gordon River on 7 November 1840, it was published as Dryandra preissii by Carl Meissner in 1845, in the first volume of Plantae Preissianae.

[5] This arrangement was rejected in 1870 by George Bentham, who recognised that leaf characters are largely irrelevant for the purposes of systematics.

[6] A synonym, Josephia preissii, arises from Otto Kuntze's 1891 transfer of the genus Dryandra (now Banksia ser.

Acuminatae, named from the Latin acuminatus ("tapering to a protracted point") in reference to the unusual involucral bracts.

This minimised the nomenclatural disruption of the transfer, but also caused George's rich infrageneric arrangement to be set aside.

[10] It is restricted to the Jarrah Forest and Avon Wheatbelt regions of Western Australia, occurring between Woodanilling, Cranbrook and Collie.