George Bentham's taxonomic arrangement of Dryandra was published in 1870, in Volume 5 of Bentham's Flora Australiensis. It replaced the 1856 arrangement of Carl Meissner, and stood for over a century before being replaced by the 1996 arrangement of Alex George.

Alex George's taxonomic arrangement of Dryandra was the first modern-day arrangement of that taxon. First published in Nuytsia in 1996, it superseded the arrangement of George Bentham, which had stood for over a hundred years; it would later form the basis for George's 1999 treatment of Dryandra for the Flora of Australia. In accordance with contemporary thinking, George treated Dryandra as a genus, dividing it into three subgenera, the largest of which was divided into 24 series. The arrangement stood until 2007, when Dryandra was transferred into Banksia as B. ser. Dryandra. No alternative has yet been proposed.