[1] The fungus was originally described in 1832 by German-American mycologist Lewis David de Schweinitz.

He found the original collections in Bethlehem, New York, where it was growing on the branches and trunk of Syringa vulgaris.

Since the mid-1980s, it has largely been accepted in the genus Datronia, where it was transferred by Robert Lee Gilbertson and Leif Ryvarden.

[3][4] In 2014, Chinese mycologists made it the type species of the new genus Datroniella after molecular analysis showed that the species then classified in Datronia belonged to three distantly related clades.

[1] Datroniella scutellata is a widespread species with a cosmopolitan distribution, and is particularly prevalent in tropical areas.