Growing as a gnarled tree to 7 m (23 ft) high, it has large green leaves up to 22 cm (8.7 in) long with dentate margins.

The cylindrical yellow inflorescences, up to 13 cm (5.1 in) high, appear between November and May, attracting various species of honeyeaters, sunbirds, the sugar glider and a variety of insects.

The dentate margins are lined irregularly with 0.1–1.3 cm (0.04–0.5 in) long teeth, separated by U-shaped sinuses.

Solander coined the (unpublished) binomial name Leucadendrum (later Leucadendron) dentatum in Banks' Florilegium.

Meissner divided Brown's Banksia verae, which had been renamed Eubanksia by Stephan Endlicher in 1847,[5] into four series based on leaf properties.

[20] Frederick Manson Bailey reported in 1913 that the indigenous people of Cape Bedford knew it as kabir.

[21] The current taxonomic arrangement of the genus Banksia is based on botanist Alex George's 1999 monograph for the Flora of Australia book series.

[22] Alex George concluded initially that its affinities lay with Banksia integrifolia on account of their similar inflorescences.

[5] In a morphological cladistic analysis published in 1994, Kevin Thiele placed it in the newly described subseries Acclives along with B. plagiocarpa, B. robur and B. oblongifolia within the series Salicinae.

[23] Salkin had also noted that the seedling leaves of B. dentata, B. robur and B. oblongifolia were all similar and roughly linear, suggesting a close relationship.

[24] However, this subgrouping of the Salicinae was not supported by George; he discounted a close relationship with B. robur, which he felt was too distinctive.

[29] It also extends onto the Aru Islands, where it is found around Trangan, and New Guinea, where it ranges in the south from Merauke east to Port Moresby, and around Bulolo and Mount Mau.

[31] Banksia dentata generally grows on sandy soils in savanna woodland or shrubland,[4] along freshwater swamps,[6] watercourses, floodplains or other seasonally wet areas.

[32] On Melville Island it is a dominant component of Banksia low woodland, forming part of a 3–6 m (9.8–19.7 ft) high canopy with Melaleuca viridiflora; the understory is composed of sedges, such as Fimbristylis, Sorghum intrans, Eriachne, Germainia grandiflora and the restiad Dapsilanthus spathaceus, as well as suckering shrubs, Lophostemon lactifluus and Syzygium eucalyptoides.

This community grows in wet areas, with a grey topsoil with high moisture and gravel content but low sand.

[29] Banksia dentata responds to bushfire by resprouting from its woody lignotuber although, unlike other members of the Salicinae, it lacks dormant buds at its base.

[30] Salkin had noted that its tropical position might mean that B. dentata was a key species in the transition from rainforest to open habitat in the ancestry of the genus.

One adaptation to a drier sunnier climate was a thick intermediate layer under the epidermis in the leaf architecture.

This layer, the hypodermis, contains large vacuoles that are filled with a phenolic compound, and seems to serve to reduce the intensity of sunlight reaching the mesophyll.

[35] B. dentata has been recorded as a host plant for the mistletoe species Amyema benthamii, Decaisnina angustata and D. signata.

[36] The tree's gnarled bark, large green leaves, and yellow flower spikes are attractive horticultural features.

[37] B. dentata is vulnerable to cold winters in cultivation in Melbourne and recovers over the hotter months of summer.

[39] Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory would light old seed cones and use them as firebrands, these lasting for up to two hours.