The section is characterised by flowers in which the perianth is straight, at least at first; all four stamens are fertile; and the style end is narrow, and conical or cylindrical.

[1] The section was first described and published by George Bentham in the 1870 fifth volume of his landmark work Flora Australiensis, under the name Adenanthos sect.

Bentham listed several diagnostic characters for the species including the straight perianth-tube; the fertility of all four anthers; and the narrow style-end.

Stenolaena, but in modern times this is of no import, as the section contains the type species of the genus, A. obovatus, and must therefore have the same type; the section was formally lectotypified in this way by Ernest Charles Nelson in 1978.

For the same reason, the modern laws of botanical nomenclature require the section to take the autonym Adenanthos sect.