Vitex and all other members of the family Verbenaceae save those in the subfamily Verbenoideae were recently moved to the family Lamiaceae.[8] As a result of this reorganization, two monophyletic families were established from the paraphyletic Verbenaceae and polyphyletic Lamiaceae.[9] This new classification scheme was initially proposed by Cantino in 1992.[10] Subsequent cpDNA analysis,[11] rbcL sequence analysis,[12] chemotaxonomic studies,[13][14] and morphological analyses [15] have supported the original logic for family reorganization.
This revision has resulted in some confusion regarding the classification of V. rotundifolia in the literature. Despite the fact that the revision is well supported with volumes of data, many authors continue to incorrectly place the plant in Verbenaceae.