The agile antechinus ("Antechinus agilis"), bush rat ("Rattus fuscipes"), feathertail glider ("Acrobates pygmaeus"), and sugar glider ("Petaurus breviceps") have been recorded visiting flower spikes. Both pollen and nectar are consumed by the southwestern pygmy possum ("Cercarteus concinnus"). Ants, bees (both native and European honeybees), blowflies and brown butterflies have been recorded as visitors to flower spikes. The wasp "Mesostoa kerri" of the subfamily Mesostoinae within the family Braconidae causes stem galls on "B. marginata" in southeastern South Australia. The galls are either round to a diameter of , or cigar-shaped to . Their effect on the plant is unclear. "B. marginata" is a host plant for the larval and adult stages of the buprestid beetle "Cyrioides imperialis". Much more pathological is the banksia longicorn beetle ("Paroplites australis") which bores holes in the base of banksia plants which then weaken and fall or blow over with wind and die. Several species of fungus have been recorded growing on the foliage, including "Acrospermum gaubae", "Argopericonia elegans", "Asterina systema-solare", "Botryosphaeria banksiae", a species of "Cladosporium", "Cooksonomyces banksiae", "Dimerium banksiae", "Episphaerella banksiae", a "Periconiella" species, "Satchmopsis australiensis", "Tryssglobulus aspergilloides", and a species of "Veronaea".