Plants in the genus Pultenaea are erect to low-lying or prostrate shrubs with simple leaves usually arranged alternately, usually with papery stipules.

The flowers are usually orange or yellow with red marking and usually arranged in leaf axils, often in a condensed raceme near the ends of branchlets.

All ten stamens are free from each other, the ovary is usually sessile and the fruit is a small, egg-shaped pod with the remains of the style attached.

[7] Smith named the genus in honour of Richard Pulteney, an English surgeon and botanist, who also was the biographer of Linnaeus.

[12] Geographic speciation factors include east vs. west endemism due to increased aridity and the development of the Nullarbor Plain; subgenera Pultenaea and Corrickosa of eastern Australia split along the Winter–Summer rainfall boundary; subclades within Corrickosa diverged due to marine incursions between South Australia and Victoria.