[2] It consists of two genera of woody plants, with essential oils: Glossocalyx in West Africa and Siparuna in the neotropics.

[4] In the 1990s, molecular phylogenetic studies of DNA sequences showed that Monimiaceae, as then circumscribed, was paraphyletic.

[5][6] The families Siparunaceae, Gomortegaceae, and Atherospermataceae form one of the three major clades that constitute the order Laurales.

[7] In 1898, Janet Russell Perkins began a series of articles on Monimiaceae, but only two were ever completed.

The second of these was mis-titled as part III on its first page (compare to table of contents therein)[8] and covers the genus Siparuna.