It has crowded, more or less linear leaves and in winter and spring, spikes of golden brown flowers followed by furry fruit which usually only open after fire.

The flowers are golden brown with yellow styles, curved at the tip and the perianth is 7–9 mm (0.3–0.4 in) long and hairy on the outside.

[3][4][5][6] Banksia meisneri was first formally described in 1845 by Johann Georg Christian Lehmann and the description was published in Plantae Preissianae.

[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.

[12] In 1981, Alex George described two varieties of B. meisneri in the journal Nuytsia: In 1996, George raised the two varieties of B. meisneri to subspecies status and the names have been accepted at the Australian Plant Census:[15] Meisner's banksia is found between Collie, Pingrup and Tenterden in the Avon Wheatbelt, Esperance Plains and Jarrah Forest biogeographic regions of Western Australia.