[1] Montias are known from fossilized seeds recovered from sediments of the Pleistocene Tomales Formation and from a small paleoflora at San Bruno.

[3][4] Further, Daniel Axelrod discussed Montia howellii as one of the biogeographically significant species comprising the Millerton paleoflora at Tomales.

[5] The genus name of Montia is in honour of Giuseppe Monti (1682–1760), an Italian chemist and botanist.

[1] Montia perfoliata, now Claytonia perfoliata, the species for which the term miner's lettuce was coined, is distributed throughout the Mountain West of North America in moist soils and prefers areas which have been recently disturbed.

The species got its name due to its use as a fresh salad green by miners in the 1849 California Gold Rush.