The genus was originally
circumscribed by Swedish lichenologist
Erik Acharius in Johann Albert Luyken's 1809 publication
Tentamen historiae lichenum, although he did not assign any species to the genus. The following year, Acharius included
Dufourea in his influential work
Lichenographia Universalis and included six species. Luyken had studied under Acharius in Sweden and had access to Acharius's work before it was published; because his text about the genus is a partial transcription of Acharius's work (and he acknowledged Acharius), Acharius is credited as the author of the name as well as the description. All six species that Acharius included in
Dufourea are now classified in different genera. A
type species for the genus,
Dufourea flammea, was selected by
Giuseppe De Notaris in 1846. The genus was resurrected for use in 2013 following a large-scale
molecular phylogenetic analysis of the family Teloschistaceae.
Dufourea species are grouped in a
clade with a
sister taxon relationship to genus
Xanthoria. The generic name
Dufourea honours French medical doctor and naturalist
Léon Jean Marie (or Jean-Marie Léon) Dufour (1780–1865). ==Description==