This flower family includes Dryandras, Banksias, Smokebush and Grevilleas, to name a few.

Located in the Southern Hemisphere, the Australian continent is the largest island in the world. Its isolation has led to the evolution of some of the world's unique flora and fauna.

Australia is home to the Kangaroo, the Honey Possum and the Emu, and their close relation to the native flora has given rise to some unique colloquial names for the flowers, such as the Honey Possum Banksia, Kangaroo Paw, Emu Bush and Honeypot Dryandra.

Western Australia is one of the world's richest wildflower areas, the wealth being boasted in the large number of different species to be found, and the great diversity of shape, size, colour and form between individual flowers in Western Australia alone, more than 6,000 different species of wildflowers have been identified. 

The names of famous botanists and explorers are commemorated by having Australian Wildflowers named after them. 
For example: 
Sir Joseph Banks - the Genus Banksia;
Sir Archibald Menzies - the species Banksia Menziesii;
William Baxter - the species Banksia Baxterii; and
Sir J.D. Hooker (Director Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England) - the species Banksia Hookeriana and species Grevillea Hookeriana. 
Also, explorer William Dampier, in 1699 was the first person to remark of the prevalence of blue coloured flowers - thus Dampiera .

Western Australia's flora is particularly distinctive because of the natural barriers of ocean and desert. These natural barriers have proved impassable for most 'foreign' species which might otherwise have invaded its vast area of more than two and a half million square kilometres.

In consequence Western Australia has remained untouched throughout aeons of time. As a result many genera have evolved in an unchanged habitat and reached a state of development quite different from plant life in less tranquil areas. No where in the world has such a regime permitted the survival, unchanged and unchanging, of the plant life which we know today. It is not too difficult to understand how the Proteaceae family, one of  the oldest flowering groups, were present in Gondwanaland long before it began breaking up more than 300 million years ago.

[Banksia Baxterii]