A total of 42 specimens in chert were studied by paleobotanists Kathleen Pigg, Stefanie Ickert-Bond, and Jun Wen, with their 2004 type description being published in the American Journal of Botany.

Pigg and team chose the specific epithet changii as a patronym honoring the Chinese botanist and ecologist Hung-ta Chang, for his work with the family Altingiaceae and for describing the living species Liquidambar acalycina.

The authors also noted that a number of Liquidambar compression/impression fossils of very similar age have been reported from the region, and may be also closely related, but lack the needed detail for examination.

[1] Liquidambar changii infructescences are round in shape, with diameters reaching 2.5 cm (0.98 in), consisting of as many as 30 individual capsules in a helical arrangement.

The woody structuring of the stems occasionally extends into the infructescence and all of the specimens have ducts for resin or gum, a character seen in living Liquidambar.