[citation needed] Beilschmiedia falls within the Lauraceae, a family of aromatic evergreen trees or shrubs.

The patterns of speciation in the Lauraceae indicate, since the onset of aridification on the continents 15 million years ago (Mya), rainforest species diversified.

The genus Beilschmiedia is present in a greater climatic distribution area than other genera of Lauraceae, Beilschmiedia species grow well in moist, well-drained ground, and tolerate a variety of soil types, and attain a maximum in tropical and wetter areas of distribution, but their pattern of speciation results in some cases from the product of aridification of the habitat.

[4] Some endangered relict species are living in temperate areas[6] and are distributed in Mediterranean climate, and tropical and subtropical lowland forests and montane rainforest.

B. lebrunii is a rare tree up to 15 m tall with a bole diameter up to 30 cm, occurring in DR Congo in forest at 1450–1700 m elevation.

Beilschmiedia variabilis is a shrub or small tree up to 10 m tall with a bole diameter up to 25 cm, occurring rather commonly in Congo in the understorey of forest in swampy, periodically inundated or drier locations.

B. zenkeri is a shrub or small tree up to 15 m tall, occurring in Cameroon and Congo in swampy and periodically inundated forest.

Lauroid-leaved plant communities are found from humid montane tropical to cool temperate Southern Hemisphere climates, and important elements of what is known as the Antarctic flora.

[8] Laurophyll trees appear in the highlands of New Guinea and New Britain, the Cape York Peninsula and the coastal mountains of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, as well as New Caledonia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.

Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, and New Caledonia were parts of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, and have drifted north over millions of years with the Indo-Australian tectonic plate.

Frequently, their bark is pale to dark brown, smooth or coarse, and they have fine, reddish-brown hairs densely covering the branchlets, and the young leaves are reddish.

The type species is Beilschmiedia roxburghiana, which ranges from the Himalayas to southern China, Indo-China and Peninsular Malaysia.