It has linear, pinnatifid leaves with ten to twenty lobes on each side, heads of up to eighty yellow and cream-coloured flowers, and elliptical follicles.

Banksia kippistiana is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) and may or may not form a lignotuber, depending on the variety.

[2][3] This species was first formally described in 1856 by Carl Meissner who gave it the name Dryandra kippistiana and published the description in de Candolle's Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis from specimens collected by James Drummond in the Swan River Colony.

[13][14] Banksia kippistiana grows in kwongan and occurs between Eneabba, Mount Lesueur and New Norcia, also in scattered locations to the south-eastern suburbs of Perth.

Banksia kippistiana is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife,[2] but var.