After Kunth described the genus as Dilplostephium (gr. diplóos: double, and gr. stéphos: corona, double pappus), Hughes Weddell cited it in Chloris Andina, that was published in 1857 describing some new species. Later, Bentham and Hooker cited it in the book Genera Plantarum (1873). In the XX century Blake and Cuatrecasas made revisions of the genus. Blake publicized a first revision of the genus in 1922, where he divided de genus into five series based on foliage and inflorescence. Furthermore, he writes a second revision of the genus in 1928, where proposed two ways of classification; the first in three sections depending of the stigma form, and the second in three series that he called "natural", based again in foliage and infloresce characters. Cuatrecasas wrote his first revision of the genus in 1943 in Flora Andina, after the publication of some new species. In this publication he describes 16 new species, and divides the genera based on the sections of Blake. Through 1943 and 1969 he describes some new species. At the end of this period he wrote a revision to the genus in Colombia in Prima Flora Colombiana, where divided again the genus into twelve series based mainly on the five series of Blake, plus new seven series. After that, several new species have been described.

The genus was considered part of the Astereae Tribe into the Heterocromeae, since the book Genera Plantarum until its last revision made by Cuatrecasas in 1969, where he notes its morphological similarity with the genus Aster. Nowadays, the genus is considered part of the subtribe Hinterhuberinae (Astereae). At a molecular level only one study has been made, that includes only one species (Noyes, 1999).

Taxonomic treatment of the colombian species according to Jose Cuatrecasas

Today the accepted treatment is that proposed by Jose Cuatrecasas in 1969, because he treated the 53 colombian species registered as the majority until that moment. This publication is considered the most complete work of the Genus at a national and continental level.

Cuatrecasas divides the genus into twelve series, five of them proposed by Blake in 1922 (Rosmarinifolia, Lavandulifolia, Rupestria, Denticulata y Floribunda), and proposed seven new series (Crassifolia, Coriacea, Huertasina, Schultziana, Phylicoidea, Saxatilia y Anactinota). In the revision he gave an order to the series based on what he called "atavistic characteristics" that can be interpreted as ancestral characters, and derived characters. The atavistic characters are arboreal forms, big leaves, sinflorescences with high number of heads, small heads, and exert ligules of the pistillate flowers. While the derived characters are short leaves, narrow leaves, revolute leaves, big capitula, small inflorescences, alone capitula, long ligules of pistilate flowers or smaller than the style.

Table 1. Comparison between the subgeneric classifications of Blake (1928) and Cuatrecasas for the Colombian species of Diplostephium with recent additions.*Synonym of the above species. **Series given by the author.