[3] It has rough, crumbly bark, linear, more or less serrated leaves arranged in whorls, yellow flowers and up to two hundred follicles in each head.

[4][5][6][7] Banksia littoralis was first formally described by Robert Brown in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London from specimens he collected from around the shores of King George Sound, "especially of Princess Royal Harbour", in December 1801.

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

[5] Swamp banksia is found in coastal areas of southwestern Western Australia, including the Wheatbelt, Peel, South West and Great Southern regions, where it is often situated along creeks and rivers, in low-lying, seasonally damp areas like swamps and depressions, where it grows well in high moisture peaty to sandy soils.

[4][5] This banksia releases its seeds from the follicles as they mature and the plant responds to fire by resprouting from epicormic buds.