Adenanthos

Erect or rarely prostrate subshrubs, shrubs (in Victoria) or trees; lignotuber absent. Leaves alternate, entire to deeply divided, sessile to distinctly petiolate. Inflorescence axillary or terminal, 1–several-flowered. Flowers virtually actinomorphic in bud, sessile, single or rarely paired, subtended by an involucre of imbricate scale-like bracts; tepals initially coherent but splitting along upper side to release the style, later splitting open at tip; stamens 4, all perfect (in Victoria) or rarely anterior stamen reduced to a staminode; anthers more or less sessile; hypogynous glands 4, scale-like; ovary sessile, ringed by long coarse hairs, ovule 1; style elongating more rapidly than perianth, tip dilated into a pollen presenter; stigma an abaxial groove, maturing after anthers. Fruit a small nut, sessile in the involucral bracts, persistent or released on maturity.