French naturalist Emile Martin-Sans elevated Hygrophoropsis to the status of genus in his 1929 publication L'Empoisonnement par les champignons et particulièrement les intoxications dues aux Agaricacées du groupe des Clitocybe et du groupe des Cortinarius, while attributing authorship to his countryman René Maire.
The presence of several pigments in the type species, including variegatic acid, variegatorubin, and several other derivatives of pulvinic acid,[REF] suggests a chemotaxic relationship with the Boletaceae, Coniophoraceae, and Paxillaceae-families of Boletales with members that have similar compounds [REF].