It has pinnatipartite or serrated leaves, usually rusty brown flowers, and up to twenty-five elliptical follicles in each fruiting head.

Banksia gardneri is a prostrate shrub that forms a lignotuber and has hairy stems that usually lie on the surface.

[6] In 1981, Alex George described the species in the journal Nuytsia, giving it the name Banksia gardneri.

In the same journal, George described three varieties and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census: Banksia gardneri grows in shrubland, low woodland and kwongan, mainly between Cranbrook, Ravensthorpe, Harrismith and the south coast of Western Australia.

This banksia is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.