The genus Faurea is characterized by the flowers borne on spikes.  All species in Africa are trees and occur in savanna and forest habitats.  The leaves are lanceolate, and vary in size between the species.  The perianth parts are all fused at the base into a tube, with one perianth segment free distally.  The ovary is covered by long silky hairs.  The fruit are hairy and have persistent styles.

The genus Protea is easily recognized by the involucral bracts which surround the flowerheads (hereafter refered to as heads), the florets with three completely fused and one totally free perianth parts, and hairy, woody fruit almost indistinguishable from the ovaries.  Additional features include a long narrow pollen presenter almost always joined to the style by a knee‑joint, leaves which vary from linear to broad blades with simple tips, thickened red or yellow edges with a black mucron on the tips; perianth parts often with awns and densely aggregated into tight heads; involucral receptacle hard, woody and showing clear spirals when florets are removed.

Aulax is characterized by having male and female plants, by the female plants bearing a female flowers and fruit in a woody cupule formed by short incurved branches, and male plants bearing male flowers in  lax, terminal, spike‑like racemes.  The female florets have the perianth fused with the ovary, all four perianth segments free and linear staminodes.  The male florets have perianth limbs united to form a basal tube with symmetrical free lobes, and a conspicuously thick style apex functioning as the  pollen presenter.  Hypogynous scales are absent in both sexes.  The fruit is an compressed obovoid achene, truncate at the base and with long, dense, white long hairs, largely confined to the edges and the median ridge.

The genus Serruria can easily be recognized by their dissected leaves which have cylindrical segments.  The flowers are subtended by a conspicuous bract, and consist of four free perianth segments united only at their bases.   Flowers are grouped  into flowerheads which may usually be discerned as a lax or dense raceme of terminal clusters of florets, or only a single terminal cluster of florets.  Involucral bracts (surrounding the terminal clusters) are infrequent and loosely arranged on the stem below the terminal cluster of florets.  The fruit is a small hard nut, sparsely covered with hair and containing a basal elaiosome.

The genus Paranomus is best distinguished by its leaves which vary from entire to dissected.  The dissected leaves have a grooved dorsal surface ending in a mucron, and are always slightly curled upwards.  The 'entire' leaf morph is unfortunately not found in all species, but in the species in which it occurs, it is characteristic of older branches, especially those bearing flowerheads.  These leaves do not have a netowork system of veins like other protea leaves, but a simple parallel venation similar to primitive plants.  The flowerheads are spike‑like, with every bract containing a set of four flowers, each subtended by its own leathery bract.  These bracts become woody with age, forming tiny round shells.  The florets contain four free perianth segments, which are usually hairy on the outer surface.  The ovary is surrounded by stiff, white hairs, and the style may be hairy or hairless.  The fruits are a smooth nut, surrounded by a ring of hairs at the base and containing a persistent style.

The genus Sorocephalus is easily recognized by its globose flowerheads, consisting of numerous heads (involucres) each consisting of 4‑9 florets, subtended by inconspicuous bracts.  The perianth is symmetrical, and fused for the lower half.  The perianth is straight in the bud, short (8‑25 mm), and styles are straight and filiform.  Leaves are simple, small, either needle‑like or with a groove on the upper surface.  The fruit is a hairless nut with an lobed base. The three main divisions into which the genus is divided are based largely on fruit morphology (which are difficult to find in the field) and leaf shape.  Other features required for distinguishing species are the number of flowers in the flowerheads, the presence of hairs on the perianth limbs, the pollen presenter shape and the shape of the bracts.

The genus Spatalla is most easily recognized by the undivided leaves, three or one flowered involucres, the perianth which is always curved away from the centre of the involucre, one perianth segment may be much larger than the other three free perianth segments, and by the prominent spoon‑like pollen‑presenter.  Fruit are hairy cylindrical nuts with a truncate and stalked base.  The Spoons are clearly related to the Powderpuffs.  A legacy of their ancestry are the four floral bracts which subtend the 3 or 1 flowered involucres.  Normally one would expect a single floral bract per flower.  Reduction of floral bracts does occur in the Unispoons, but never attains a 1:1 relationship characteristic of the Powderpuffs.

The genus Leucospermum is most easily identified by the long styles which protrude from the flowerhead, creating the impression of a pincushion.  The flowerheads are axillary, never terminal, and the involucral bracts are small and inconspicuous.  The three outer perianth segments are partly fused to form a tube at the bottom of the flower, while the forth segment is mostly free and often elongated.  The leaves may have a many‑toothed apex: virtually all Proteaceae with more than three glandular teeth to the leaves are pincushions.  These teeth are apparently nectaries, but their function is unknown.
The hairs on Leucospermum leaves are of two types: long, thin hairs (trichomes) which occur in all other local Proteaceae genera, and short, curly hairs which are confined to pincushions.  These curly hairs give the leaves the appearance of being covered by a thin layer of white or grey wool which can be rubbed off.

The genus Vexatorella can most easily be mistaken for a Leucospermum (section Diastelloides), from which it can easily be distinguished by its terminal flowerheads, which may be grouped into a panicle.  The leaves always have a single callus on the tip.  The four perianth segments separate symmetrically and are only fused in the tube region.  Flowers are sweetly scented.  The floral bracts become lignified after flowering, a feature shared with L. secundifolium.  The fruits have a persistent style, and are hairless with an elaiosome surrounding the fruit and forming a little stalk.

The genus Diastella can easily confused with the smaller Leucospermum species.  Silkypuffs rarely grow taller than one meter.  Their leaves are linear to oval, usually without teeth.  Flowerheads are small, globose, terminal (or both terminal and axillary) capitula, 10‑20 mm in diam..  One to three rows of papery or membranous bracts extend to or beyond the florets, enveloping the flowerhead at base.  The perianth is 6‑10 mm long, and subtended by a linear to filiform floral bract, covered with silky hairs.  All four perianth segments are free almost to the base.  Hypogynous scales are usually absent.  Pollen presenter linear acute.  Fruit is a typical Leucospermum nut.

The genus Mimetes can readily be distinguished from all other Proteaceae by the dense heads of flowers formed by aggregating tubular, axillary, stalkless flowerheads (technically a pseudanthia), each containing 3‑22 (35) florets and subtended by a leaf, into a large cylindrical flowerhead (technically a conflorescence).  The perianth segments are almost entirely free and symmetrical.  The style is hairless and is adorned by a distinctively‑shaped pollen presenter in each species.  Leaves are 1‑3 toothed.  The fruit is ovoid to cylindric, usually hairless to minutely hairy, with a prominent elaiosome at both ends joined by a thin ridge down one end.

The genus Orothamnus is distinct from all other genera in that the flowerheads are pendulous, and are surrounded by large, hairy, pink involucral bracts, which resemble the petals of a rose.  The Marsh Rose is most closely allied to the Tube Pagodas, with the flowerheads of Orothamnus equivalent to the Mimetes pseudanthia.  The major difference between Orothamnus and Mimetes is that the Marsh Rose has terminal flowerheads, not axillary as in the Pagodas.  The stem then continues growing upwards from an axillary bud, in this fashion several flowerheads may be produced during the flowering season. The genus is confined to the Kogelberg and Kleinmond mountains, with a single population near Hermanus.  There is only one species in the genus.

The genus Leucadendron is easily identified by the woody cones borne on some plants in each species, and the plants of separate sexes.  About half the plants (the females) in any population produce cones which bear seeds, whereas male plants bear cones for the short flowering seasons and never produce seed.  Cones consist of spirally arranged floral bracts, which cover and partially hide a floret.  After flowering the bracts become hard and woody, forming the conspicuous fruiting cones.
The perianth segments are fused into a tube with only tips free. In male florets the ovaries are reduced.  In female florets the style is straight or slightly curved, with a large terminal portion, usually with a slit on the top for receiving pollen.
Male plants are usually more branched than female plants and are often slightly larger with smaller leaves and cones.  Male florets are subtended by an inconspicuous floral bract. The perianth segments  are free on top half of floret, but fused into a tube below.  The style is always present, and serves as a pollen presenter, but other female organs are reduced.

The genus Brabejum is the only naturally occurring African member of the Proteaceae to bear two seeds per flower.  This feature is a characteristic of the Australian Proteaceae to which this species is most closely related.  The genus can also be identified by the florets being borne in dense, spike‑like racemes, florets with long stalks, the leaves in whorls of 4‑6, and the large, densely velvety, almond‑shaped seeds.

Needlebushes can be recognized by their hard, needle‑shaped leaves, the flowers which are not borne in a head, but generally occur axillary as a few flowers, sometimes grouped into catkins.  The flowers differ from most African Proteaceae in that each flower bears two seeds.  Hard, woody follicles bearing two seeds, protect the seeds from fire.