The genus was established in 1775 by French botanist Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet in his description of the species.

Based on mature leaves and male inflorescences, French botanist Nicaise Auguste Desvaux described Piper tiliifolium in 1825 and Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré described Laurea tiliifolia in 1844.

In 1880 Louis Édouard Bureau described B. sagotiana based on mature leaves and female inflorescences.

Plants with juvenile and adult foliage were thought to belong to different species until at least 1975; in his 1975 treatment of the Moraceae for the Flora of Suriname, Dutch systematist Cornelis Berg maintained B. guianensis and B. tiliifolia as separate species—the former with lobed juvenile foliage, the latter with the entire leaves of mature trees (although he maintained this distinction with reservations).

][1] Bagassa guianensis is found in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and the northern Amazon basin (in the states of Amapá, Pará, Maranhão and Roraima) with an apparently disjunct population in the southwestern states of Mato Grosso and Rondônia.

[1] Bagassa guianensis is a "long-lived pioneer"[6] that frequently established in second growth forests and tree-fall gaps.

[2] The seeds of B. guianensis are dispersed by a variety of animals including monkeys, birds, deer, rodents and tortoises.