Banksia splendida, commonly known as shaggy dryandra,[2] is a species of shrub that is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia.

The first mention of the species occurred in 1852, when Meissner published "A list of the Proteaceae collected in south-western Australia by Mr. James Drummond" in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany.

[4][5] Four years later, Meissner formally published this name in his chapter on the Proteaceae in de Candolle's Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis.

[6] No etymology was given for the specific epithet, but it is accepted that it comes from the Latin speciosus ("showy"), and refers to the attractive inflorescences; if so then this is somewhat inappropriate since the flowers tend to be obscured by foliage.

Eudryandra on the grounds that it contained a single seed separator, and erected for it a new series (Haplophyllae) of unstated rank, because it has Folia omniæ integerrima ("All the leaves have completely smooth margins").

[9] In the same journal, George described two subspecies of D. speciosa: Since 1998, Austin Mast has been publishing results of ongoing cladistic analyses of DNA sequence data for the subtribe Banksiinae.

splendida is classified as "Priority Two" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife meaning that it is poorly known and from only one or a few locations and subsp.