The subfamily's center of diversity is in the monsoon region of eastern Australasia, extending west through South Asia into Africa, and eastwards into Polynesia.

Aurantioideae are smallish trees or large shrubs, or rarely lianas.

Their fruit are very characteristic hesperidia, usually of rounded shape and colored in green, yellowish or orange hues.

[1] The subfamily has been divided into two tribes, the ancestral Clauseneae and the more advanced Citreae, as in a 1967 classification.

[1] A 2021 classification by Appelhans et al. based on a molecular phylogenetic study of almost 90% of the genera of the family Rutaceae places about 27 genera in the subfamily, stating that it was not yet feasible to produce a division into tribes.