The representatives are shrubs or small trees that grow in white sand soils in tropical South America.

[2] Retiniphyllum was placed in the subfamily Rubioideae in the earliest systems of classification due to the misinterpretation of the bi-ovulated locules.

William Jackson Hooker established the tribe Retiniphylleae in 1873 and included the genera Retiniphyllum and Kutchubaea.

The classification of the group remained difficult for a long time, which resulted in the placement of the genus Retiniphyllum in different tribes and subfamilies of Rubiaceae.

Molecular studies place the genus in an isolated clade of the Ixoroideae related to paleotropical representatives.