It has smooth, greenish bark, wavy, wedge-shaped, serrated leaves, yellow, orange or brown flowers in cylindrical spikes, followed by broadly linear follicles surrounded by the remains of the flowers.

It has smooth, greenish brown bark that becomes lightly tessellated and grey as it ages.

[6][7] In 1869, Ferdinand von Mueller described two varieties of B. quercifolia in Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae but the names, var.

[8][9][10] Oak-leaved banksia occurs on the south coast of Western Australia from D'Entrecasteaux National Park in the west to Mount Manypeaks in the east where it is commonly grows in depressions, seasonally wet flats and along the margins of swamps, in white or grey peaty sandy soils.

[11] Banksia quercifolia is a fast-growing, bushy shrub that flowers within five years from seed.