Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants. Mainly restricted to the southern hemisphere, it is a fairly large family, with around 80 genera but less than 2000 species.

Description

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Many proteaceae are highly variable, with Banksia in particular providing one of the most striking examples of adaptive radiation in plants. This variability makes it impossible to provide a simple, diagnostic identification key for the family, although individual genera may be easily identified.

Proteaceae are generally trees or shrubs, except for some Stirlingia species which are herbs. They are evergreen, with leaves that vary greatly in size, shape and margin. 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 Proteaceae 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.

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