Dorstenia is unique in the family Moraceae because of the extremely diverse growth habits and forms of its species.

The pseudanthiums can be planar, convex, concave, round, oval, square, lobed, twig, star, boot, or tongue-shaped.

The sunken female flowers carry tubular tepals and a free fruit node with one or two, then mostly unequal scars.

However, a special feature of Dorstenia drupes is that they explode to release and scatter the seeds by way of a centrifugal mechanism.

[3] Dorstenia is part of the tribe Dorstenieae of the family Moraceae, and all three levels of classification are monophyletic from chloroplast and nuclear DNA phylogenies, with morphological characters that also support.

[5] Fossils of Ficus and Morus fruits have been found on the African continent, and are used to approximate the origin of the family Moraceae to a maximum of 135 million years ago.

In a recent study using fossil fruits, Bayesian molecular dating, and maximum likelihood, researchers attempted to reconstruct the ancestral history of Dorstenia with ITS (internal transcribed spacer) sequences from ribosomal DNA of 35 Dorstenia species and seven out-group species from the different tribes within the Moraceae.

Only one species grows east of Arabia, in the tropical forests of Southern India and Sri Lanka.

[7][8] In North America powder made from the rootstocks and leaves of Dorstenia contrajerva is mixed with tobacco for improving the taste of cigarettes.

Scientific research has shown that it contains numerous flavonoid compounds that have anti-microbial, anti-reverse transcriptase, and anti-inflammatory effects.