[1][2][3][4][5][6] One species, A. salicifolia, which grows in Australia, has a wider distribution through nearby Timor and westwards through some more of the Lesser Sunda Islands (Indonesia).

In this context, science seems to have only recorded the knowledge of A. papuana growing there naturally as the putative sole endemic species.

[4][7] In mainland Australia's warmer places, twelve species are known by published formal botanical descriptions—trees, shrubs and subshrubs, growing naturally in rainforests, brigalow scrubs, monsoon forests (rainforests in a climate of a summer wet season and cool dry season, with drought–deciduous trees), tropical savannas, coastal scrubs, some arid desert areas and in similar vegetation associations further south than the tropics.

They grow naturally only up to 45 cm (18 in) tall subshrubs, with the leafy above ground growth that dies back each dry season to the underground woody rootstocks.

The scarcity of A. natalensis trees and their restricted range has received the global conservation status (IUCN) of "vulnerable D2".

[10] In Papua New Guinea A. papuana grows naturally in coast monsoon dune scrub (coastal rainforests on dune soils that become seasonally dry, with deciduous trees), tropical savanna forests and in regenerating areas of regularly burning swamp forests and rainforests.