Key

PROTEACEAE

Shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate, sometimes opposite or whorled, mostly coriaceous or xeromorphic, entire to pinnatisect, without stipules. Flowers in spikes, racemes or umbels, sometimes paired or rarely solitary, regular or irregular, bisexual. Perianth segments 4, in a single whorl, petaloid, valvate in bud, cohering when young and separating later (often slit on one side) or connate towards the base. Stamens 4, opposite the perianth segments and adnate to them; anthers often sessile. Hypogynous glands 3–4, separate or united or absent. Ovary superior, often stipitate, (ie. gynophore present (Fig. 56m)), 1-locular; placenta marginal or basal; style simple, often curved or hooked and protruding through the perianth before the stigma emerges; pollen from the anthers of the same flower often deposited upon a variously shaped pollen presenter below or around the stigma before the flower opens. Fruit an achene, drupe or follicle. 80 gen., temp. to trop., particularly Africa and Australia.

1	Leaves opposite or whorled	2
1	Leaves alternate	3
2	Leaves more than 10 cm long, flat. Fruit pear-shaped	Xylomelum
2	Leaves less than 10 cm long, with recurved margins. Fruit horned	Lambertia
3	Flowers sessile	4
3	Flowers pedicellate	10
4	Leaves variously divided	5
4	Leaves undivided	7
5	Flowers in loose, narrow spikes often grouped into panicles	Symphionema
5	Flowers in dense cone-like or globular spikes	6
6	Spikes longer than broad, cone-shaped in fruit. Bracts persistent, woody, opening to release the fruits. Perianth tube splitting to the base	Petrophile
6	Spikes globular when in flower, sometimes elongated later. Bracts falling with the fruits. Perianth tube not splitting to the base	Isopogon
7	Flowers in dense many-flowered spikes.	8
7	Flowers in panicles or loose spikes.	9
8	Fruit a woody follicle. Flowers in pairs in each bract, Inflorescence usually ovoid or cylindrical > 5 cm long.	Banksia
8	Fruit a nut enclosed in the woody bracts. Flowers solitary in each bract. Inflorescence globular < 5 cm long.	Isopogon
9	Perianth white or bluish. Fruit a flat-topped hairy achene	Conospermum
9	Perianth yellow. Fruit a drupe	Persoonia
10	Flowers solitary or in pairs or clusters in the axils of leaves or bracts	11
10	Flowers in elongated or short and dense racemes, resembling heads or umbels	12
11	Flowers solitary, perianth segments equally spreading, yellow. Fruit a drupe	Persoonia
11	Flowers in pairs or clusters, perianth segments rolled back to one side, usually whitish, sometimes cream. Fruit a woody follicle.	Hakea
12	Ovules 2	13
12	Ovules more than 2	14
13	Anthers on very short filaments, versatile. Fruit indehiscent, ± fleshy	Helicia
13	Anthers sessile not versatile. Fruit a follicle	Grevillea
14	Flowers in large terminal pseudo-heads; surrounded by large red, pink or greenish (rarely white) bracts. Perianth red (rarely white).	Telopea
14	Flowers in umbels or racemes. Bracts caducous or absent. Perianth white, cream or yellow	15
15	Flowers in umbels of 20 flowers or less. Hypogynous gland horseshoe shaped or absent	Stenocarpus
15	Flowers in racemes. Hypogynous glands 3, occasionally with a smaller 4th gland	Lomatia

KEY TO THE GENERA