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Common name:     Proteas, Banksias, Grevilleas and allies            

Etymology:   Named in 1735 by Carl Linnaeus, possibly after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his form at will, possibly because of the wide variety of forms

Flowers:                  

• P4/P(4), A4/A3, G1,     A or Z,     Complex, often a raceme, cone-like, spike-like or dense heads

• Occasionally solitary and axillary (e.g. Persoonia)

Fruit:                         

• A small, dry, hairy nut.

Leaves:         

•  Mostly simple, often lobed

• Usually leathery

• Young leaves are often bronze due to T-shaped hairs

• Leaves rarely aromatic, usually alternate, and in a spiral

•  Petiole frequently with a swollen base but rarely sheathed, without stipules

Habit:        

• Shrubs or trees (up to 40m)

• Some Stirlingia species that are herbs

• Some species are facultatively deciduous 

Habitat:                     

• Predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere

• Comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species

• Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Proteales

• Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentrations of diversity

Species:                     

• World:            1660 S   83 G

• Australia:      1100 S   46 G ... 37 genera and almost all the species are endemic

Additional notes:        

• Highly varied, which makes it impossible to provide a simple, diagnostic identification key for the family, although individual genera may be easily identified.

• Plants usually hermaphroditic, more rarely monoecious, dioecious or andromonoecious.

• Inflorescences very variable, simple or compound, axillary or terminal, lateral flowers solitary or in pairs, rarely with a terminal flower, racemiform, paniculate or condensed, usually with bracts, sometimes converted into leaves or squamiform, forming a type of cone, or with bright colours, forming an involucre or pseudanthium, the peduncles and pedicels sometimes contracted, compacted with the rachis, in some cases the congested inflorescences form super inflorescences (some Alloxylon); very rarely the flowers are solitary and axillary near the end of branches; in species with lignotubers the flowers sometimes grow from these and pass through the soil (geophytes).

• Inflorescence and leaves of the pin-cushion hakea (Hakea laurina)

• Generally speaking, the diagnostic feature of Proteaceae is the compound flower head or, more accurately, inflorescence. 

• In many genera, the most obvious feature is the large and often very showy inflorescences, consisting of many small flowers densely packed into a compact head or spike. Even this character, however, does not occur in all Proteaceae; Adenanthos species, for example, have solitary flowers. 

• In most species, the pollination mechanism is highly specialised. It usually involves the use of a "pollen-presenter", an area on the style-end that presents the pollen to the pollinator.

• Proteaceae flower parts occur in fours, but the four tepals are fused into a long, narrow tube with a closed cup at the top, and the filaments of the four stamens are fused to the tepals, in such a way that the anthers are enclosed within the cup. 

• The pistil initially passes along the inside of the perianth tube, so the stigma, too, is enclosed within the cup. As the flower develops, the pistil grows rapidly. Since the stigma is trapped, the style must bend to elongate, and eventually it bends so far, it splits the perianth along one seam. The style continues to grow until anthesis, when the nectaries begin to produce nectar. At this time, the perianth splits into its component tepals, the cup splits apart, and the pistil is released to spring more or less upright.                                     

Subfamilies of Proteaceae:

1. Subfamily Bellendenoideae

2. Subfamily Persoonioideae

• • • Tribe Placospermeae

    • Tribe Persoonieae

3. Subfamily Symphionematoideae

4. Subfamily Proteoideae

• • • Tribe Conospermeae (Stirlingiinae, Conosperminae

    • Tribe Petrophileae

    • Tribe Proteeae

    • Tribe Leucadendreae (Isopogoninae, Adenanthinae, Leucadendrinae)  

5. Subfamily Grevilleoideae

• • • Tribe Roupaleae (Roupalinae, Lambertiinae, Heliciinae, Floydiinae)

    • Tribe Banksieae (Musgraveinae, Banksiinae) 

    • Tribe Embothrieae (Lomatiinae, Embothriinae, Stenocarpinae, Hakeinae)

    • Tribe Macadamieae (Macadamiinae, Malagasiinae, Virotiinae, Gevuininae)   

World genera (61):

1. Adenanthos 31 Endemic to Australia

2. Alloxylon   4 Australia, New Guinea and Aru Islands

3. Aulax   3 South Africa

4. Austromuellera   2 Endemic to Australia

5. Banksia 170 All but one (NG & islands) are endemic to Australia

6. Banksieaeformis Known from fossil leaves

7. Banksieaeidites Known from fossil pollen

8. Banksieaephyllum Known from fossil leaves

9. Beauprea   1 Native to New Caledonia

10. Bleasdalea   2 Native to Australia and New Guinea

11. Buckinghamia   2 Endemic to rainforests of Australia

12. Conospermum 50 Endemic to Australia

13. Darlingia   2 Endemic to rainforests of Australia

14. Diastella   7 Endemic to South Africa 

15. Dilobeia   2 Endemic to Madagascar

16. Eidothea   2 Endemic to rainforests of Australia

17. Embothrium   2 - 8 Native to southern South America

18. Eucarpha   2 Endemic to New Caledonia

19. Euplassa 20 Native to tropical South America

20. Faurea 16 Summer rainfall area of southern Africa

21. Finschia   3 New Guinea and surroundings (rainforests highland forests)

22. Franklandia   2 Endemic to southwestern  Australia

23. Grevillea > 350 Most are endemic to Australia but 3 grow in New Guinea

24. Hakea     150 Endemic to Australia

25. Helicia     110 Rainforests in tropical south and southeast Asia;  Australia

26. Heliciopsis       13 Burma, Indo-China, SE. China

27. Hicksbeachia   2 Rainforests of north eastern Australia

28. Hollandaea   4 Australian rainforest trees

29. Isopogon 40 Endemic to Australia

30. Kermadecia   5 Endemic to New Caledonia

31. Knightia   3 New Zealand & New Caledonia

32. Lambertia 10 Endemic to Australia

33. Lasia   2 Native to Asia and New Guinea

34. Leucadendron     ~80 Endemic to South Africa

35. Leucospermum       48 South Africa, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Mozambique

36. Lomatia       12 Eastern Australia and southern South America, Antarctica

37. Macadamia   4 Indigenous to Australia

38. Mimetes 13 Endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa

39. Musgravea   2 Australia

40. Oreocallis   1 Native to mountainous regions in Peru and Ecuador

41. Orites   9 7 endemic to Australia and 2 in South America

42. Panopsis 12 Central and South America

43. Paranomus 18 Endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa

44. Persoonia     ~40 Endemic to Australia; Toronia toru (NZ) is closely related

45. Petrophile     ~ 65 Endemic to Australia

46. Protea ~136 Most found on the African continent

47. Roupala 36 Neotropical genus of woody shrubs and trees 

48. Serruria     ~ 57 Endemic to South Africa

49. Sorocephalus 11 Endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa

50. Spatalla 20 Endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa

51. Stenocarpus 22 Australia, ?

52. Stirlingia   7 Endemic to Western Australia

53. Strangea   3 Native to Australia

54. Symphionema   2 Endemic to Australia

55. Synaphea     ~56 Endemic to Western Australia

56. Telopea   5 Endemic to Australia

57. Triunia   4 Endemic to Australia

58. Turrillia   5 Native to Oceania

59. Vexatorella   4 Endemic to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa

60. Virotia   6 Endemic to New Caledonia

61. Xylomelum   6 Endemic to Australia