Banksia splendida, commonly known as shaggy dryandra, is a species of shrub that is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It has sharply-pointed linear leaves that are woolly on the lower surface, cream-coloured and maroon or yellow flowers in heads of between 65 and 115, and later up to eight egg-shaped follicles in each head. Description Banksia splendida is a much-branched shrub that typically grows to a height of but does not form a lignotuber. It has sharply-pointed, linear leaves that are long and wide on a petiole long. The edges of the leaves are rolled under and the lower surface in woolly-hairy. The flowers are arranged in a head of between 65 and 115 with linear, tapering and thread-like involucral bracts long at the base of the head. The perianth is cream-coloured near its base, maroon or yellow above, long and the pistil is cream-coloured, long with a pale red pollen-presenter. Flowering occurs from July to September and the fruit is an egg-shaped follicle long. Taxonomy This species was first collected by James Drummond in the late 1840s, and sent to England in Supplement 19 to his 5th Collection. The first mention of the species occurred in 1852, when Meissner published "A list of the Proteaceae collected in south-western Australia by Mr. James Drummond" in Hooker's Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany. This list includes an entry for this specimen under the name "Dryandra speciosa Meisn. MSS.". Four years later, Meissner formally published this name in his chapter on the Proteaceae in de Candolle's Prodromus systematis naturalis regni vegetabilis. No etymology was given for the specific epithet, but it is accepted that it comes from the Latin speciosus ("showy"), and refers to the attractive inflorescences; if so then this is somewhat inappropriate since the flowers tend to be obscured by foliage. Meissner placed D. speciosa in D. sect. Eudryandra on the grounds that it contained a single seed separator, and erected for it a new series (Haplophyllae) of unstated rank, because it has Folia omniæ integerrima ("All the leaves have completely smooth margins"). Meissner's arrangement differed from George Bentham's 1870 arrangement in Flora Australiensis and was based solely on floral characters and disregarded leaf shape. Bentham retained D. speciosa in D. sect. Eudryandra, but placed it in a new series Gymnocephalae with D. Shuttleworthiana (now B. shuttleworthiana (bearded dryandra)) and D. tridentata (now B. tridentata (yellow honeypot).