The plants grow in cool situations in temperate climates and are frequently found on the banks of rivers and streams.

They contain cyanogenic glycosides derived from tyrosine, flavonoids belonging to the proanthocyanidins group (e.g. prodelphinidin) and flavonols (kaempferol, quercetin, myricetin), in addition to triterpenols (including betulinic acid).

The main use for a number of the species is to provide shade in pedestrian areas in temperate regions, particularly the London plane (Platanus × hispanica), which is widely distributed throughout Europe and North America.

A large number of fossils of this family have been recorded from the Lower Cretaceous (98-113 million years ago, Platanocarpus).

The examples from that time had very small pollen (8-10 μm) and a developed perianth and they lacked hairs at the base of the nucule.

The Cronquist system of 1981 recognized the family and placed it in order Hamamelidales, in subclass Hamamelidae [sic] in class Magnoliopsida (dicotyledons).

The Engler system, in its 1964 update, also recognized the family and placed it in the order Rosales in subclass Archichlamydeae of class Dicotyledoneae.

The Wettstein system, last revised in 1935, also recognized the family and placed it in the order Hamamelidales in the Monochlamydeae in subclass Choripetalae of the class Dicotyledones.

It is divided into two subgenera: the subgenus Castaneophyllum J.-F. Leroy, 1982, with elliptical, penninerved leaves with small scarious, stipules, that only includes Platanus kerrii Gagnep., 1939, an isolated relict species that represents the genus’ evolutionary basal branch and which is the sister group of the other species, which comprise the subgenus Platanus.