Named for its discoverer, Australian botanist William A. Schipp, the species is threatened by habitat loss.

In the first edition of Genera Palmarum (1987), Natalie Uhl and John Dransfield placed the genus Schippia in the subfamily Coryphoideae, the tribe Corypheae and the subtribe Thrinacinae[4] Subsequent phylogenetic analysis showed that the Old World and New World members of the Thrinacinae are not closely related.

[6] The species was discovered by Australian botanist William A. Schipp in 1932[2] and described by German taxonomist Max Burret in 1933.

[8] Schippia concolor exhibits the unusual strategy of transferring all stored resources from the seed to the seedling before any shoot growth occurs.

By the thirtieth day, the lower 3 or 4 cm (1.2 or 1.6 in) are swollen, and about half the reserves in the seed have been mobilised.