Pepinia was first established as a subgenus by Lyman Smith and then elevated to a genus by Varadarajan and Gilmatin based on the absence of seed appendages.
Macmichael's The Gold-Headed Cane was published anonymously in 1827 with biographies of the owners of a cane carried by John Radcliffe, Richard Mead, Anthony Askew, William Pitcairn and Matthew Baillie.