These characters are considered plesiomorphic—traits that were present in the ancestors of the Moraceae which have been retained in the Moreae.

He found that while it was easy to define the tribe (based on the presence of urticaceous stamens), the definitions of the genera were more challenging.

[2] In an attempt to sort out the evolutionary history of the Moraceae Shannon Datwyler and George Weiblen use the chloroplast ndhF gene to build a phylogeny of the family.

So defined, Moreae s.s. includes Bagassa, Morus, Milicia and Sorocea, together with some (but not all) of the species currently placed in Streblus and Trophis.

included all of these genera, together with Bleekrodea, Broussonetia, Fatoua, Maclura and the remaining species in Streblus and Trophis.

Based on rates of molecular evolution in chloroplast and nuclear genes, the Moreae s.s. is estimated to be about 59–79 million years old.