Plants of the World Online accepts 44 species native to sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, and south-central China.

The name Distephanus is derived from Greek and means "two crowns", a reference to the two whorls of bristles that form the pappus.

[9] Distephanus has usually been placed in the tribe Vernonieae, but the results of some molecular phylogenetic studies of DNA sequences have cast doubt upon this placement.

In one classification of Asteraceae, it was placed in a tritomy consisting of Distephanus, Moquinieae, and Vernonieae.

[11] Distephanus differs from (other) genera in Vernonieae in having yellow flowers as well as in other characters that are less obvious.