Several different life forms are present in the tribe: most species are shrubs, but geofructices (plants with woody rhizomes) (e.g. Fadogia homblei, Pygmaeothamnus zeyheri), small trees (e.g. Vangueria infausta), and climbers (e.g. Keetia gueinzii) also occur.

Most genera and over 70% of the species occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Madagascar and the islands in the Western Indian Ocean.

The tribe is found at elevations of over 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in the mountains of Malawi and Tanzania, but also at sea-level along the coast of South Africa.

There is a wide range of flower sizes and fruit morphologies, suggesting different adaptations to pollination and dispersal.

[3][4][5] The presence of such bacteria is consistent on a genus level and all species belong to the following 5 genera: Fadogia, Fadogiella, Globulostylis, Rytigynia, and Vangueria.

The first non-Asiatic taxa to be described were the genera Pyrostria and Vangueria, based on material collected on Western Indian Ocean islands.

[13] Dumortier first mentioned a tribe Vanguerieae (as “Vaugnerieae”) attributed to Achille Richard and put the genera Hamelia, Evosmia, Mitchella, “Vaugneria” (Vangueria), and Nonatelia in it.

At that time, authors often used the number of locules as a character for delimiting groups, but this is problematic for Vanguerieae as both 2-locular (e.g. Canthium) and 5-locular (e.g. Vangueria) ovaries occur in the tribe.

Stenosepalae Dibridsonia Canthiumera Fadogia Fadogiella Rytigynia Hutchinsonia Cuviera Globulostylis Vangueriella sect.