Until recently, B. integrifolia's taxonomic placement within the genus was largely settled, with the species placed in Banksia subg.

Its leaves have dark green upper surfaces and white undersides, a contrast that can be striking on windy days.

Within its natural distribution it is a popular choice in parks, streetscapes, bush revegetation and stabilisation of dunes.

Its hardiness has prompted research into its suitability for use as a rootstock in the cut flower trade, but has also caused concerns about its potential to become a weed outside of its natural habitat.

The first botanical collection of B. integrifolia was made by Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Daniel Solander, naturalists on the Endeavour during Lieutenant (later Captain) James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific Ocean.

On the Endeavour's return to England in July 1771, Banks' specimens became part of his London herbarium, and artists were employed to paint watercolours from Parkinson's sketches.

[2] The genus Banksia was eventually described by Carolus Linnaeus the Younger in his April 1782 publication Supplementum Plantarum.

[6] In 1810, Robert Brown relegated the name to synonymy with B. integrifolia,[7] and it remained so until 1981 when Alex George refined it to a synonym of the autonym B. i. var.

[6] In 1800, Antonio José Cavanilles published a number of new Banksia species based on specimens collected at Port Jackson, New South Wales in 1797 by Luis Née, botanist to the Alejandro Malaspina expedition.

[9] In 1810, Robert Brown described 31 known species of Banksia in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen.

Meissner divided Brown's Banksia verae, which had been renamed Eubanksia by Stephan Endlicher in 1847,[6] into four series based on leaf properties.

In Bentham's arrangement, Meissner's four series were replaced by four sections based on leaf, style and pollen-presenter characters.

[17] In 1913, Frederick Bailey promoted Brown's B. compar, which had been declared a synonym of B. integrifolia by Bentham in 1870, to variety rank as B. i. var.

In addition to revising the existing nomenclature, George published a number of new species and subspecies, including a new variety of B. integrifolia, namely B. i. var.

[20] A third subspecific taxon of B. integrifolia has its roots in Gwen Harden's 1991 publication Flora of New South Wales.

[8] Until recently, the accepted taxonomic arrangement for Banksia was that published in George's 1999 monograph for the Flora of Australia series.

His inferred phylogeny is very greatly different from George's arrangement, and provides compelling evidence for the paraphyly of Banksia with respect to Dryandra.

[23][24][25] Early in 2007, Mast and Thiele initiated a rearrangement of Banksia by transferring Dryandra into it, and publishing B. subg.

Some of this variation can be attributed to environmental factors, but much appears to be genetic: George writes that it "gives the impression that it is actively speciating to fill the many ecological niches through its range".

More recent work by Evans has supported this classification, with monticola more closely allied with the nominate subspecies than with compar.