Endemic to southern Australia, they are evergreen woody shrubs with solitary flowers that are pollinated by birds and, if fertilised, develop into achenes.
[1] The first known botanical collection of Adenanthos was made by Archibald Menzies during the September 1791 visit of the Vancouver Expedition to King George Sound on the south coast of Western Australia.
The genus was given the name Adenanthos from the Greek αδην (aden-, "gland") and ανθοσz (-anthos, "flower"), in reference to the prominent nectaries.
That year, Bentham published the fifth volume of his Flora Australiensis, in which was contained a treatment of the plant family Proteaceae, including Adenanthos.
[3] In his treatment of Adenanthos, Bentham published a fourteenth species, and the first infrageneric arrangement: he divided the genus into two taxonomic sections, A. sect.