The tribe also occurs in Southwest Asia, some Atlantic islands, other portions of Africa and Europe, with non-native occurrences in the US, Australia, and New Zealand.

Cladistic arrangement of this group of plants has been recognized as far back as Andrea Cesalpino in the 1630s and again by Giulio Pontedera in the 1720s, but the official nomenclature arose after Cassini's work within the family.

Early 20th-century botanists placed this tribe as sister to the Senecioneae; however, there has been molecular evidence of closer relationships between the Astereae and the Calenduleae.

[7] This tribe has demonstrated monophyly through chemical analysis of the similar pimarane diterpenes found within all tested species.

Osteospermum and Garuleum share the highest number of identical chemical signatures, indicating close phylogenetic relationship and a more recent divergence than other genera of the tribe.