[6][7] Alex George raised the variety to species status in his 1981 monograph "The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)", based on a specimen he collected outside the Moore River Native Settlement, on 2 February 1967.

[8] He placed it in subgenus Banksia because of its flower spike, in section Oncostylis because its styles are hooked and in the resurrected series Abietinae, which he constrained to contain only round-fruited species.

[12] Banksia incana grows in sand in heath, shrubland or woodland, often with B. attenuata and B. menziesii and occurs between the Arrowsmith River and Perth.

[a] Whereas other Banksia species produce nectar that is clear and watery, the nectar of these species is pale yellow initially, but gradually becomes darker and thicker, changing to a thick, olive-green mucilage within one to two days of secretion, and eventually becoming "an almost black, gelatinous lump adhering to the base of the flowers".

Noting that many of these cyanobacteria had heterocysts, he speculated that they aid the plant by fixing atmospheric nitrogen, which is then washed off the flower heads by rain, and absorbed by the proteoid root mat.

[18] Further investigation by Markey and Lamont in 1996 suggested that the discolouration is not caused by cyanobacteria or other microorganisms in the nectar, but is rather "a chemical phenomenon of plant origin".