Baru (D. alata) is the only species which found in drier, seasonal areas, growing in the cerrado of Brazil; its fruit and seeds are used as food and fodder.

[2][3] Dipteryx can be distinguished from other members of the Dipterygeae by its compound leaves with asymmetric leaflets caused due to an eccentric primary vein, a drupaceous fruit, seeds with a leathery skin, a hilum in a lateral or subapical position and a rugose embryo with a conspicuous plumule.

[6] His taxonomy was accepted by ILDIS (2005)[6] but not noticed or followed by US databases, i.e. in GRIN (2005),[7] the entry on Dipteryx in the Contribución al conocimiento de las leguminosas Colombianas by C. Barbosa (1994),[8] the IUCN (1998)[9] based on World List of Threatened Trees by Oldfield et al. (1998),[10] or the Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Gymnosperms of Peru (1993) which was built using the Tropicos database by the Missouri Botanical Garden.

[12] The northernmost taxon Dipteryx panamensis, notable as being the only species listed on CITES since 2003 and therefore subject to export controls,[3][8] was synonymised with the neglected but older name D. oleifera by de Lima in 1989, but this move was only followed by ILDIS[6] and one or two of articles on the species over the years, all other floras, databases and publications using the name D.

[3] In 2011, however, the Report of the Nomenclature Committee for Vascular Plants: 62 recommended D. oleifera by treated as validly published, and de Lima's synonymy for this taxon has been accepted by many.