Synapheas have variably shaped leaves but consistently yellow flowers with an unusual pollination mechanism.

The flowers are relatively small, bright yellow, usually unscented, and arranged in a spike in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets.

In synapheas (and in Conospermum), the anthers and stigma are held together under tension and only separate when touched by a pollinator, ejecting the pollen.

[2][3] The genus Synaphea was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.

[6][3] The following is a list of formally named Synaphea species and subspecies accepted by the Australian Plant Census as at April 2020:[1] The genus is endemic to Western Australia.