Defined by botanists
Rudolf Schlechter and
Kurt Krause in 1908, the
type species is
Atractocarpus bracteatus, which is found only on
New Caledonia. Subsequently, several other species were described from
New Caledonia. Meanwhile, the genera
Randia and
Gardenia had been used as
wastebasket taxa, where many species that had been difficult to place had been placed by default. Several Australian species of the genus
Randia were found to be not closely related to
Neotropical species and were transferred in a review of the genera by Australian botanist Christopher Puttock in 1999; these include several garden plant species such as
A. benthamianus,
A. chartaceus, and
A. fitzalanii. Puttock also proposed that the genera
Sukunia,
Trukia,
Neofranciella, and
Sulitia (the last two consisting of once species each) be sunk into
Atractocarpus. The resulting genus now contains around forty species, with seven found in Australia, and others in the
Federated States of Micronesia, the
Philippines,
New Guinea, the
Solomon Islands,
Vanuatu,
New Caledonia,
Fiji,
Tonga, and east to
Tahiti. All species are found in a type of lowland rainforest known as mesophyll vine forests, as well as swamp forests and vine thickets. ==Species==