They occur in all Australian states except Western Australia but the genus is under review and a number of species are yet to be described or the description published.

[2][3][4] The genus Zieria was first formally described in 1798 by James Edward Smith and the description was published in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.

Ehrhart in his collection of plants of the Electorate of Hanover, 1780-83, and afterwards worked in London, where he died in 1793.

The groups are: In a 2015 study, using a combination of two non-coding chloroplast DNA regions, Internal transcribed spacer and some morphological characters, Cynthia Morton concluded that the genus as presently described is monophyletic.

A tentative arrangement of 32 of Armstrong's 42 species was also suggested: Zieria citriodora, Z. arborescens, Z. minutiflora, Z. obcordata and Z. pilosa were not able to be resolved in this study.