They are most abundant in Colombia, Peru and Brazil, but can also be found in areas from Cuba and Mexico south to Argentina.

One species, Pitcairnia feliciana, is found in tropical West Africa and is the only member of the family Bromeliaceae not native to the Americas.

Pitcairnia was established as a genus by Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle in 1788.

[4] Pepinia was reduced to a subgenus of Pitcairnia in 1881 by John Gilbert Baker,[5] but elevated again to a genus in 1988, largely on the basis of the morphology of its seeds.

[6] The use of morphological characters to differentiate Pepinia from Pitcairnia was rejected in 1999;[7] a view confirmed later by multiple molecular studies.