The species was first described in 1871 as
Dacrymyces sebaceus by the Rev.
Miles Joseph Berkeley and
Christopher Edmund Broome, based on specimens collected by Broome in
Somerset, England. Fruit bodies have a superficial resemblance to
Dacrymyces species and the name was largely forgotten until New Zealand mycologist
Ross McNabb re-examined Broome's specimens in 1965, discovered they represented a fungus with auricularioid basidia, and referred the species to the genus
Platygloea sensu lato. German mycologist
Franz Oberwinkler investigated the species in 1990 and separated it from
Platygloea sensu stricto, placing it in the new genus
Naohidea. The genus name was selected in honour of Japanese mycologist Naohide Hiratsuka.
Molecular research, based on
cladistic analysis of
DNA sequences, has confirmed the placement of the species in
Naohidea and further shown that it is (currently) an isolated species within the
Pucciniomycotina with no close relatives. ==Distribution and habitat==