Dutch botanist Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel described the desert fig in 1847 as Urostigma platypodum,[2] from material collected on both the east and west coast of Australia.

[4] Based on morphology, English botanist E. J. H. Corner divided the genus into four subgenera,[5] which was later expanded to six.

[5] In a study published in 2008, Nina Rønsted and colleagues analysed the DNA sequences from the nuclear ribosomal internal and external transcribed spacers (ITS and ETS), and the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3pdh) region, in the first molecular analysis of the section Malvanthera.

They found F. platypoda to be most closely related to the ancestor of two other arid Northern Territory species (F. subpuberula and F. lilliputiana) and classified it in a new series Obliquae in the subsection Platypodeae.

[8] Horticulturally, it is suitable for use in bonsai; its tendency to form a wide trunk base and small leaves being attractive features.