It consists of about 43 species of trees, shrubs, and woody vines, mostly of the tropics, but with a few in temperate regions.

[5] The family Cardiopteridaceae was established by Carl Ludwig Blume in 1847 [6] when he described the species Cardiopteris moluccana.

[7] Blume based his new family on Cardiopteris, a name that had previously been used by John Royle[8] and Nathaniel Wallich,[9] but not validly published.

[16] It has since been divided into five segregate families: Cardiopteridaceae, Stemonuraceae, Pennantiaceae, Metteniusaceae, and Icacinaceae sensu stricto.

He also provisionally placed Metteniusa, Dendrobangia, and Pseudobotrys there as well, until further studies could give some firm indication of their true relationships.

DNA sequences submitted to GenBank in 2009 indicate that Dendrobangia does not belong in Cardiopteridaceae and is more closely related to genera like Apodytes.