Originally from South America and the West Indies, it is now widely naturalized throughout the tropics.

Trimezia martinicensis is closely related to T. steyermarkii,[6] with which it has been widely confused.

[7] Clive Innes describes T. martinicensis as having a brown mark at the base of each outer tepal, whereas T. steyermarkii has brownish-purple bands.

[8] In Kubitzki & Huber (1998), the flowers of T. martinicensis are shown as opening less widely than those of T. steyermarkii.

The inner tepals of both species are S-shaped in cross-section; those of T. martinicensis are more-or-less upright (Innes describes them as "folded inwards"[9]), whereas those of T. steyermarkii bend outwards into a more elongated shape so that the top of the S is not visible from above.