[2] The sole species Neorites kevedianus, commonly called fishtail oak or fishtail silky oak, is a tall tree endemic to the wet tropics rainforests of north eastern Queensland, Australia.

[5] Peter H. Weston and Nigel Barker refined the classification of the Proteaceae in 2006, incorporating molecular data.

[6] Clock dating with molecular and fossil data indicated ancestors of Neorites and the South American genus Roupala may have diverged in the mid-Oligocene around 30 million years ago, and that this lineage in turn separated from the ancestors of Orites in the late Eocene around 36 million years ago.

[7] A compound-leaved fossil species has been recovered from the middle Eocene Golden Grove site in Adelaide that closely resembles Neorites kevedianus.

[4] Neorites kevedianus is native to north Queensland, where it is found in rainforest on volcanic soils at altitudes from 150 to 1,150 metres (490 to 3,770 ft) above sea level.