In the broader circumscription, the genus has a discontinuous distribution, with species native to eastern North America and Madagascar.

In the narrower circumscription, the genus contains only species native to eastern North America.

The plants are low-growing terrestrial herbs with yellow flower heads containing both disc and ray florets.

[3] In 1977, a review of the genus reduced it to a single North American species with two varieties.

[5] In 2020, Nesom accepted one of the varieties as a separate species, Chrysogonum repens.