 The genus "Aphloia" was described by John Joseph Bennett in 1840 and included in Flacourtiaceae, where most authors continued to include it until Armen Takhtajan recognized its misplacement and created the new family Aphloiaceae in Violales to accommodate it.In 2003 the APG II system included Aphloiaceae in the Rosids without specifying an order.Matthews & Endress (2005) and Stevens (2006) include the family in an enlarged order Crossosomatales.