Banksis ionthocarpa is a shrub that has short, hairy, prostrate, more or less underground stems and typically grows to a height of 60 cm (24 in).

Flowering occurs from September to April and the follicles are egg-shaped, 5–5 mm (0.20–0.20 in) long with a distinctive tuft of rust-coloured hairs on the end.

[5] In 1996, Alex George formally published the species as Dryandra ionthocarpa, the specific epithet coming from the Greek ionthas ("shaggy") and carpos ("fruit"), in reference to the tuft of hair on each follicle.

[4] Since 1998, Austin Mast had been publishing results of ongoing cladistic analyses of DNA sequence data for the subtribe Banksiinae.

[6][7][8] Early in 2007, Mast and Kevin Thiele initiated a rearrangement of Banksia by sinking Dryandra into it as B. ser.