Until 2015 included in Lapeirousia, Schizorhiza was recognized as a result of molecular study which showed the single species sister to Lapeirousia¸ Cyanixia, Savannosiphon plus Afrosolen (until 2015 the tropical members of Lapeirousia). It thus falls between the ancestral clade, Codonorhiza, and the remainder of the Lapeirousia group. Morphologically it shares somewhat leathery floral bracts, a many-braanched, more or less corymbose compound inflorescence and pollen grains with 1-banded operculum. It stands apart in the nearly ellipsoid corm with a small flat base, splitting into several daughter corms and cork-like tunics at the end of the growing season. The basic chromosome number, x = 6 also departs from that in Codonorhiza, x = 10. The flowers, however, most closely those of short-tubed members of the eastern and tropical African genus Afrosolen, notably A. sandersonii.