It is a neotropical genus consisting of 18-27 species, mostly hardwood evergreen trees,[2] occurring from Costa Rica to the southeast of Brazil (Werff 1987).

[citation needed] The genus was described by Otto Kuntze ex Paul Hermann Wilhelm Taubert and published in Centralblatt Botanischer 50: 21 in 1892.

[citation needed] Mezilaurus are monoecious[dubious – discuss] trees or shrubs with leaves alternate, usually congested at the apex of the branches, without papillae on the abaxial epidermis.

The cupula when present with pateliforme summit, small in relation to the fruit, the tepals are deciduous.

Seed dispersal is mostly by birds,[citation needed] though monkeys, porcupines and squirrels have also been observed eating the fruits.