George published the series in his 1996 "New taxa and a new infrageneric classification in Dryandra R.Br.", naming it after the type species, D. plumosa (now Banksia plumosa). It was defined as containing three species, D. plumosa, D. pseudoplumosa (now B. pseudoplumosa) and D. montana (now B. montana. All three species are dense bushy shrubs, without a lignotuber; and all have long hairs on the stems and about the flower heads. In addition, all three are restricted to western parts of the Esperance Plains region of Western Australia, between the Stirling Range and the Fitzgerald River region.[1][2]
George's placement and circumscription of D. ser. Plumosae, as amended in his 1999 treatment of Dryandra for the Flora of Australia series,[3] and in 2005,[4] may be summarised as follows:
Since 1998, Austin Mast has been publishing results of ongoing cladistic analyses of DNA sequence data for the subtribe Banksiinae. His analyses have provided compelling evidence of the paraphyly of Banksia with respect to Dryandra; that is, it seems that Dryandra arose from within the ranks of Banksia.[5][6][7] Early in 2007, Mast and Kevin Thiele initiated a rearrangement of Banksia by sinking Dryandra into it as B. ser. Dryandra. This transfer necessitated the setting aside of George's infrageneric arrangement of Dryandra; thus D. ser. Plumosae is no longer current. Mast and Thiele have foreshadowed publishing a full arrangement once DNA sampling of Dryandra is complete.[8]
^Cavanagh, Tony; Pieroni, Margaret (2006). The Dryandras. Melbourne: Australian Plants Society (SGAP Victoria); Perth: Wildflower Society of Western Australia. ISBN1-876473-54-1.
^George, Alex S. (1999). "Dryandra". In Wilson, Annette (ed.). Flora of Australia. Vol. 17B. Collingwood, Victoria: CSIRO Publishing / Australian Biological Resources Study. ISBN0-643-06454-0.
^Mast, Austin R. (1998). "Molecular systematics of subtribe Banksiinae (Banksia and Dryandra; Proteaceae) based on cpDNA and nrDNA sequence data: implications for taxonomy and biogeography". Australian Systematic Botany. 11 (4): 321–342. doi:10.1071/SB97026.
^Mast, Austin R., Eric H. Jones and Shawn P. Havery (2005). "An assessment of old and new DNA sequence evidence for the paraphyly of Banksia with respect to Dryandra (Proteaceae)". Australian Systematic Botany. 18 (1). CSIRO Publishing / Australian Systematic Botany Society: 75–88. doi:10.1071/SB04015.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Mast, Austin R.; Thiele, Kevin (2007). "The transfer of Dryandra R.Br. to Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae)". Australian Systematic Botany. 20: 63–71. doi:10.1071/SB06016.