It has hard, fissured bark, narrow wedge-shaped, serrated leaves, pale yellow flowers in cylindrical spikes and elliptical follicles that open when heated in a bushfire.

Banksia pilostylis is a shrub that typically grows to a height of 4 m (13 ft) and has hard, fissured bark but does not form a lignotuber.

[2][3][4][5] Banksia pilostylis was first formally described in 1964 by Charles Gardner in the Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia from specimens he collected in October 1960.

[9] This banksia grow in shrubland and low woodland near the south coast of Western Australia between Ravenshorpe and Israelite Bay.

[3] Banksia pilostylis is classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife.