Distictis Mart. ex Meisn. is a genus of 11 species in the tribe Bignonieae. All the species are lianas and can be recognized by their ribbed hexangular branchlets without interpetiolar glandular fields; bifoliolate leaves with a trifid (or occasionally additionally branched) terminal tendril; terminal inflorescence; usually glandular, campanulate, more or less truncate calyces; more or less straight, tubular-infundibular or tubular-campanulate corollas that are white, purple, orange, or red; usually elliptic, non-echinate capsules with both ends pointed, and often with both valves convex; and usually bialate seeds, with the body brown and ridged and often papillose or pubescent, and the wings usually well demarcated from the seed body and membranous-hyaline. Relationships with similar genera are discussed, and a key to the species of Distictis, species descriptions, and species distribution maps are provided. The relationships of the species are also discussed, and a new combination, D. frutescens (DC.) A. Pool, is proposed. A neotype is designated for D. granulosa Bureau & K. Schum., and lectotypes are designated for Bignonia rigescens Jacq., Pithecoctenium buccinatorium DC., P. buccinatorium var. subinclusum DC., P. buccinatorium var. exsertum DC., P. cinereum DC., and P. uleanum Kraenzl. Pithecoctenium stipulare Mart. ex DC. and D. stipularis Mart. ex Glaz. are presented as new synonyms of D. frutescens, P. cinereum var. parviflorum Hochr. is presented as a new synonym of D. laxiflora (DC.) Greenm., and P. scabriusculum var. macranthum Bureau & K. Schum. is presented as a new synonym of D. scabriuscula (Mart. ex DC.) A. H. Gentry.