Grevilleoideae

Subfamily of plants in the family Proteaceae, mainly from the Southern Hemisphere

The Grevilleoideae are a subfamily of the plant family Proteaceae. Mainly restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, it contains around 46 genera and about 950 species. Genera include Banksia, Grevillea, and Macadamia.

The Grevilleoideae grow as trees, shrubs, or subshrubs. They are highly variable, making a simple, diagnostic identification key for the subfamily essentially impossible to provide. One common and fairly diagnostic characteristic is the occurrence of flowers in pairs that share a common bract. However, a few Grevilleoideae taxa do not have this property, having solitary flowers or inflorescences of unpaired flowers. In most taxa, the flowers occur in densely packed heads or spikes, and the fruit is a follicle.

Grevilleoideae are mainly a Southern Hemisphere family. The main centre of diversity is Australia, with around 700 of 950 species occurring there, and South America also contains taxa. However, the Grevilleoideae are barely present in Africa, where almost all of Proteaceae taxa belong to the subfamily Proteoideae. The lone exception and only grevilleoid in Africa is the Brabejum tree of Cape Town.

The nursery industry cultivates many Grevilleoideae species as barrier plants and for their prominent and distinctive flowers and foliage. Some species are of importance to the cut flower industry, especially some Banksia and Dryandra species. Two species of the genus Macadamia and the Chilean species Gevuina avellana (Chilean hazel) are grown commercially for edible nuts. Chilean hazel has an acceptable frost tolerance.