Specimens of
B. armata were first collected at
King George Sound in December 1801 by
Robert Brown. Brown published a description of the species in 1810 in
Transactions of the Linnean Society of London naming it
Dryandra armata. The
specific epithet is from the
Latin meaning "armed", in reference to the sharply serrated leaves. Thirty years later,
John Lindley published a purported new species, which he named
Dryandra favosa. This was accepted as a species by
Carl Meissner in 1845, but declared a
taxonomic synonym of
D. armata by him in 1856, and the latter view was taken by
George Bentham his 1870
Flora Australiensis. In 1996,
Alex George published
D. a. var. ignicida, resulting in the automatic creation of the
autonym D. a. var.
armata. George also refined the synonymy of
D. favosa to
D. armata var.
armata. In 2007, all
Dryandra species were transferred to
Banksia by
Austin Mast and
Kevin Thiele so that the name
D. armata changed to
Banksia armata. The names of the two varieties of this species are accepted by the
Australian Plant Census: •
Banksia armata (R.Br.) A.R.Mast & K.R.Thiele var. armata, a shrub to high with a lignotuber and with leaves wide with six to thirteen lobes on each side; a shrub to , lacking a lignotuber and with leaves wide with five to eight lobes on each side. ==Distribution and habitat==