Craterispermum is a genus of shrubs and small trees with generally glabrous leaves and stems, leathery leaves, axillary subcapitate to cymose inflorescences, small distylous flowers with white 5-merous corollas with valvate lobes, and fleshy fruits with the seeds solitary in each locule. It is somewhat similar in aspect to Canephora and Chapelieria.
All the plants of Craterispermum in Madagascar were treated for a long time as Craterispermum laurinum, but Verdcourt (1973) showed that this particular species is restricted to West Africa. Plants of Craterispermum in East Africa have also been confused with Craterispermum laurinum, but Verdcourt also showed that the East African plants are a distinct species that corresponds to Craterispermum schweinfurthii. Plants of Madagascar have also been confused with Craterispermum schweinfurthii, but Craterispermum schweinfurthii is also an entirely continental African species (Verdcourt, 1973). De Block and Randriamboavonjy (2015) found that the Craterispermum species in Madagascar are all endemic to the island and undescribed, and they described the first known Craterispermum species from here.