It has broadly linear, pinnatifid or pinnatipartite leaves with between five and twenty lobes on each side, yellow, orange or brownish flowers in heads of forty or more, and glabrous, egg-shaped follicles.

[2][3] This species was first formally described in 1855 Carl Meissner in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany and was given the name Dryandra ferruginea from an unpublished description by Richard Kippist, the type material having been collected by James Drummond.

[8][9] This stood until 1996, when Alex George restored the specific rank of D. ferruginea, and declared D. runcinata its synonym.

[15] George's Dryandra ferruginea subspecies were renamed as follows, the names accepted by the Australian Plant Census: This banksia is widespread between Pingelly, the Stirling Range and Forrestania where it grows in shrubland and kwongan and is often locally common.

rufa are listed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Parks and Wildlife but all the other subspecies have a priority rating.