Banksia occidentalis R.Br.

Shrub or small tree to 7 m tall, without lignotuber. Bark smooth with lenticels, grey-brown. Stems pubescent, glabrescent. Leaves whorled; petiole 1-5 mm long; lamina linear, 4-13 cm long, 2-3 (-6) mm wide, truncate; margins recurved, sparsely serrate; upper surface pubescent, glabrescent; lower surface white-tomentose. Inflorescence 4-14 cm long; involucral bracts narrow, tomentose, persistent. Flowers golden, green in bud; styles metallic red. Perianth 17-18 mm long including limb of 3-3.5 mm, slender, pubescent inside and outside. Pistil hooked, 29-35 mm long, glabrous; pollen presenter ovoid, 0.3 mm long. Old flowers persistent. Follicles up to 60, elliptic, 10-18 mm long, 4-7 mm high, 3-7 mm wide, transversely ridged on valves, ±acute along suture, hirsute. Seed obovate, 12-13 mm long; seed body triangular, 5-6 mm long, 3 mm wide, smooth.

In sand or peaty sand, usually on swamp margins in tall shrubland or paperbark woodland; sometimes in coastal seepages and on coastal dunes.