Plants in this genus are shrubs with five petals joined to form a tube-shaped flower with four stamens of unequal lengths.

Plants in the genus Pityrodia are evergreen shrubs with erect, usually cylindrical branches.

Brown published his description in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae and designated Pityrodia salvifolia as the type species.

In a review of the genus in 1979, Ahmad Abid Munir included Pityrodia and nine other genera in a family Chloanthaceae, all endemic to Australia and sometimes referred to as "Australian Verbenaceae".

[6] The following is a list of Pityrodia species accepted by the Australian Plant Census as at February 2023:[8]