cordata is a variety of Banksia sessilis (Parrot Bush), with unusually large leaves and flower heads.

Meissner did not explicitly give an etymology for the varietal epithet, but referred to the leaves as cordatis,[3] Latin for "heart-shaped", and this is now universally recognised as the source of the name.

[1] In 1870, George Bentham published what is now recognised as a synonym of this variety, as D. floribunda var.

Bentham's taxon was based on a specimen collected at Cape Naturaliste by Augustus Oldfield.

He also attributed to this variety a painting of D. floribunda that appeared in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1813.

cordata occurs only in the Warren region of the Southwest Botanical Province of Western Australia.

[1] On the Department of Environment and Conservation's Declared Rare and Priority Flora List, B. sessilis var.