Cox discovered this fungus after incubating dead bur oak tree branches (collected in Illinois) in a moist chamber for a few days and observing the resulting tiny white fruiting bodies emerging between the cracks of the bark.

The genus name, which combines the Greek chion ('snow') with sphaira ('ball'), refers to the form of the fungus's glistening white fruiting body, which Cox described as a "tiny stalked snowball" when viewed under a microscope.

[4] Cox suggested classifying Chionosphaera in the Filobasidiaceae, and proposed emending the description of this family to accommodate this inclusion.

[4] Instead, in 1982 the mycologists Franz Oberwinkler and Robert Bandoni proposed the family Chionosphaeraceae, with Chionosphaera as the type genus.

It only forms its fruiting bodies in the lab when grown alongside another fungus, such as a species of Cladosporium or a similar mold.