the common sunshine conebush was first described by swedish botanist peter jonas bergius in 1766, who named it "leucadendron salignum". the species name is the latin adjective "salignus" "made of willow-wood". scottish botanist robert brown called the species "l. adscendens" in his 1810 work "on the natural order of plants called proteaceae". carl meisner gave it the name "l. involucratum" in 1856.