Specimens of "B. ilicifolia" were first collected by Scottish surgeon Archibald Menzies during the visit of the Vancouver Expedition to King George Sound in September and October 1791, but this collection did not result in the description of the species. It was next collected by Robert Brown in December 1801, during the visit of HMS "Investigator" to King George Sound. The species was also drawn by the expedition's botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer. Like nearly all of Bauer's field drawings of Proteaceae, the original field sketch of "B. ilicifolia" was destroyed in a Hofburg fire in 1945. A painting based on the drawing survives, however, at the Natural History Museum in London.