Members of the genus are known as smokebushes - from a distance, their wispy heads of blue or grey flowers resemble puffs of smoke.

[1][2] The genus was first formally described by James Edward Smith in 1798 and the description was published in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.

[1] Members of the genus are commonly known as smokebushes due to the grey flowers resembling smoke arising off the plant.

[6] Australian botanists Lawrie Johnson and Barbara Briggs placed Conospermum in the subtribe Conosperminae along with the genus Synaphea in their 1975 monograph "On the Proteaceae: the evolution and classification of a southern family".

Some bees in the genus Leioproctus (L. conospermi, L. pappus and L. tomentosus) feed exclusively on one or two species of Conospermum obtaining both nectar and pollen.

"[15][16] Although not common in horticulture, some members of the genus Conospermum, especially the Western Australian smoke bushes are particularly attractive.