Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Shrubs or trees, rarely subshrubs or perennial herbs; leaves alternate, rarely strictly opposite or whorled, simple or compound, usually coriaceous, stipules absent.

Flowers bisexual, rarely cryptically unisexual, solitary or paired or in racemes, spikes or panicles sometimes condensed into umbels, heads or cones; perianth regular or irregular; segments 4, valvate, the claws forming a tube in bud, the laminae a globular to ovoid limb, variously splitting at anthesis; stamens 4, opposite to and usually inserted on the perianth-segments, rarely free; anthers sessile or on short filaments at the base of the laminae, tetrasporangiate; cells 2, sometimes one or both abortive; hypogynous scales or glands (nectaries) 4, sometimes united, reduced or absent; ovary 1-celled, sessile or stipitate, and then often displaced to one side (lateral), 1-, 2- or (outside S.Aust.) many-ovulate, style terminal, simple, the style-end often variously dilated into a specialised pollen-presenter, terminated by an obscure lateral or median stigmatic groove or cavity.

Fruit an indehiscent nut or drupe or a coriaceous or woody follicle, seeds 1-many, lacking albumen, often winged in dehiscent fruit.

Distribution:  About 1,500 species in 75 genera, extending into the tropics, primarily of the Southern Hemisphere with over half of these (about 900 species, 45 genera) in Australia. (L. A. S. Johnson & B. G. Briggs (1975) On the Proteaceae--evolution and classification of a southern family. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 70:83-182.)

Biology: Pollination in most genera is effected by a specialised mechanism involving the pollen-presenter, a modification of the style-end behind the stigma into a dilation, disc or cone, sometimes associated with a brush of papillae or bristle-like hairs. In bud the pollen-presenter is surrounded by the anthers within the perianth limb. At anthesis, when the style breaks free, pollen from the flower is carried en masse upon the pollen-presenter. Cross-pollination occurs through the transfer of the pollen by insect or bird or even mammal to the receptive stigma of another flower. Persoonia exhibits the unspecialised condition seen in most flowering plants in which pollination occurs through transfer of pollen between anthers and stigma without a separate intermediate pollen-presenting organ.

Key to Genera:

1. Flowers and fruits densely aggregated into cones
2. Leaves bipinnate, with terete segments; inflorescence surrounded by a dense cluster of leaves; fruit a comose nut subtended by woody bracts, combined in a persistent woody cone	PETROPHILE 8.
2. Leaves simple, the blade or segments flat
3. Leaves entire or serrate; inflorescence exserted from the leaves; fruits 2-valved follicles persistent on a woody axis, with 2 glabrous winged seeds	BANKSIA 2.
3. Leaves bipinnatisect; inflorescence surrounded by leaves; fruit a pilose nut subtended by caducous woody bracts combined into a fragile cone	ISOPOGON 6.
1. Flowers and fruits solitary, in pairs or in loose clusters, racemes or panicles
4. Perianth at anthesis 2-lipped, the upper lip entire, much larger than the 3 lobes of the lower lip; lower stamen and lower cells of lateral anthers reduced, sterile; fruit a small indehiscent comose turbinate nut	CONOSPERMUM 3.
4. Perianth at anthesis with 4 equal segments or split down one side or with 4 segments displaced to one side; stamens not noticeably modified, even if sterile
5. Fruit a drupe; style-end not modified into a conspicuous pollen-presenter	PERSOONIA 7.
5. Fruit a nut or woody follicle; style-end modified into a conspicuous pollen-presenter
6. Leaves (in S.Aust.) compound, densely clustered towards the ends of branchlets at flowering; each flower sessile in an involucre of bracts borne on a terete peduncle; hypogynous glands 4; fruit a nut borne in a persistent involucre	ADENANTHOS 1.
6. Leaves simple or compound, evenly spread along the branchlets; each flower pedicellate, sometimes in pairs and sub-tended by a small bract; hypogynous gland 1; fruit a woody follicle without subtending bracts
7. Follicle opening down one side only, valves thinly woody, concave in inner view; seeds flat, with or without a narrow wing of even width surrounding the body, sometimes when young fusiform, grooved on one side; leaves pubescent below at least in longitudinal grooves, glabrescent above, rarely subterete and evenly glabrescent	GREVILLEA 4.
7. Follicle opening at least partly down both sides, valves thickly woody, flat within apart from the seed cavity; seeds from early development flat, with a wing much longer at one end of the body and rarely surrounding it; leaves with pubescence equally persistent above and below	HAKEA 5.

Author: Prepared by W. R. Barker