It has smooth, grey bark, deeply serrated, hairy leaves and spikes of bright orange flowers.

Banksia ashbyi is a shrub or small tree that typically grows to a height of 8 m (26 ft) and sometimes forms a lignotuber.

[2][3][4] Banksia ashbyi was first formally described in 1934 by Edmund Gilbert Baker in the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign.

[5] In 2008, Alex George described two subspecies in the journal Nuytsia and the names have been accepted by the Australian Plant Census: Ashby's banksia grows in heath and spinifex country along the coast of Western Australia between Geraldton and Exmouth.

[2] An assessment of the potential impact of climate change on this species found that its range is unlikely to contract and may actually grow, depending on how effectively it migrates into newly habitable areas.