Banksia ionthocarpa is a shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 endemic to Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. It was known as Dryandra ionthocarpa until 2007.

Taxonomy

B. ionthocarpa was first discovered in 1987 by professional seed supplier Peter Luscombe. The following year specimens were collected by both Margaret Pieroni

Margaret Pieroni

Margaret Pieroni is a Western Australian botanical artist and botanist who has authored, co-authored and/or illustrated numerous books on Australian botany, including Brush with Gondwana: Botanical Artists Group of Western Australia , The Dryandras , Verticordia: the turner of hearts , Discovering...

 and Alex George

Alex George

Alexander Segger George is a Western Australian botanist. He is the authority on the plant genera Banksia and Dryandra...

. For the next eight years, the species was referred to by the manuscript name Dryandra sp. Kamballup (M.Pieroni 20/9/1988). In 1996, Alex George

Alex George

Alexander Segger George is a Western Australian botanist. He is the authority on the plant genera Banksia and Dryandra...

 formally published the species as Dryandra ionthocarpa, the specific epithet coming from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 ionthas ("shaggy") and carpos ("fruit"), in reference to the tuft of hair on each follicle

Follicle (fruit)

In botany, a follicle is a dry unilocular many-seeded fruit formed from one carpel and dehiscing by the ventral suture in order to release seeds, such as in larkspur, magnolia, banksia, peony and milkweed....

. Indeed, George considered the fruit to be so distinctive that he placed it alone in a new series that he named Dryandra ser. Ionthocarpae.

Since 1998, Austin Mast

Austin Mast

Austin R. Mast is a research botanist. Born in 1972, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2000. He is currently an associate professor within the Department of Biological Science at Florida State University , and has been director of FSU's since August 2003.One of his...

 has been publishing results of ongoing cladistic analyses of DNA sequence

DNA sequence

The sequence or primary structure of a nucleic acid is the composition of atoms that make up the nucleic acid and the chemical bonds that bond those atoms. Because nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, are unbranched polymers, this specification is equivalent to specifying the sequence of...

 data for the subtribe Banksiinae. His analyses have provided compelling evidence of the paraphyly

Paraphyly

A group of taxa is said to be paraphyletic if the group consists of all the descendants of a hypothetical closest common ancestor minus one or more monophyletic groups of descendants...

 of Banksia

Banksia

Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...

 with respect to Dryandra

Dryandra

Banksia ser. Dryandra is a series of 94 species of shrub to small tree in the plant genus Banksia. It was considered a separate genus named Dryandra until early 2007, when it was merged into Banksia on the basis of extensive molecular and morphological evidence that Banksia was paraphyletic with...

; that is, it seems that Dryandra arose from within the ranks of Banksia. Early in 2007, Mast and Kevin Thiele

Kevin Thiele

Kevin R. Thiele is curator of the Western Australian Herbarium. His research interests include the systematics of the plant families Proteaceae, Rhamnaceae and Violaceae, and the conservation ecology of grassy woodland ecosystems...

 initiated a rearrangement of Banksia by sinking Dryandra into it as B. ser. Dryandra; Dryandra ionthocarpa thus became Banksia ionthocarpa. This transfer necessitated the setting aside of George's infrageneric arrangement of Dryandra; thus D. ser. Ionthocarpae is no longer current. Mast and Thiele have foreshadowed publishing a full arrangement once DNA sampling of Dryandra is complete.

Two subspecies are recognised, the autonym

Autonym (botany)

In botanical nomenclature, autonyms are automatically created names, as regulated by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature . Autonyms are cited without an author. Relevant provisions are in articles 6.8, 22.1-3 and 26.1-3....

 B. ionthocarpa subsp. ionthocarpa

Banksia ionthocarpa subsp. ionthocarpa

Banksia ionthocarpa subsp. ionthocarpa is a subspecies of Banksia ionthocarpa. As an autonym, it is defined as encompassing the type material of the species. It was known as Dryandra ionthocarpa subsp. ionthocarpa until 2007, when Austin Mast and Kevin Thiele sunk all Dryandra into Banksia. As with...

, and B. ionthocarpa subsp. chrysophoenix, first collected by Pieroni in 1999 and published by George in 2005.