It was for a long time thought to be an extinct angiosperm allied to the carnivorous plant genus Aldrovanda.

[1] Cajsa Lisa Anderson et al. (2005) wrote: "synapomorphic characters that link the fossils seeds [of P. splendens] to extant Aldrovanda include hard testa with an outer epidermis of palisade cells and with a smooth, strongly reflecting surface, short micropylar neck, and extruding, pointed chalazal area".

[2] However, research published by Zuzana Heřmanová and Jiří Kvaček in 2010 has cast doubt on this hypothesis.

[...] Our new interpretation of Palaeoaldrovanda significantly influences the current view of the family Droseraceae.

It may also influence the hypotheses of the first unequivocal appearance of carnivorous plants in general.Palaeoaldrovanda is only known from fossils of the late Turonian–Santonian Klikov beds of the Czech Republic.