[4] It has a fire-resistant main stem with thick bark, pinnatisect leaves with triangular side-lobes, pale yellow flowers and elliptical follicles in a large cone.

It is also found in the form of a stunted, spreading shrub near the south coast, and whenever it occurs among granite rocks.

[2][5][6][7] Banksia grandis was first formally described in 1798 by Carl Ludwig Willdenow in the fourth edition of the book Species Plantarum.

[11] This application of the principle of priority was largely ignored by Kuntze's contemporaries,[12] and Banksia L.f. was formally conserved and Sirmuellera rejected in 1940.

[5][6][7] Species of nectarivorous birds that have been observed feeding on B. grandis include Anthochaera carunculata (red wattlebird).

[7][15][16] The flowers of Banksia grandis were known as mangyt, pulgarla or Bool gal la by the Indigenous peoples who live within its range.