In female flowers the sepals are united at their base to form a calyx tube, and have one or two styles, that are finely divided like an ostridge feather.

Names published before 1753, the year that was chosen as a starting point for the binominal nomenclature proposed by Carl Linnaeus, are not valid however.

[5][6] In 1808, Necker subdivided the genus and created Morilandia, while Carl Borivoj Presl suggested to split-off Monographidium in 1849, but neither was followed by later authors.

[3] Since comparison of homologous DNA of different genes (in the nucleus and chloroplast respectively) result in other phylogenetic trees, it is assumed that many Cliffortia species have hybridized.

Fewer species survive the less intense fires by regrowing from the crown of the plant, but those species grow in locations that do not sustain intense fires, such as isolated from the surrounding vegetation by bare rock (C. neglecta, C. tuberculata, C. complanata and C. propinqua), wet areas (C. aculeata, C. graminea, C. nivenioides and C. strobilifera), or montane grasslands (C. linearifolia, C. nitidula subsp.

[3] Cliffortia species can be found throughout the Cape Floristic Region, where they almost exclusively grow in fynbos, and in the transition zones with adjoining biomes like the Karoo and Albany thickets.

Within the Cape Floristic Region, it occurs in the widest range of environments, from the highest mountain peaks to coastal sand flats.

Outside the Cape Floristic Region most of the Cliffortia species occur the afromontane heathlands, between Mount Kenya (C. nitidula) in the north to the southern Drakensberg in the south.