Found in southwestern China, it was described as a new species in 2014 by mycologists Bao-Kai Cui, Hai J. Lee, and Yu-Cheng Dai, who placed it in the new genus Datroniella.

The type collection was made in Tongbiguan Nature Reserve (Longchuan County, Yunnan), where the fungus was found growing on a fallen angiosperm branch.

[1] The fruit body of D. tropica is effused-reflexed, meaning it is like a crust fungus with the margins extended and bent backwards to form rudimentary caps.

The pore surface, initially white to cream, becomes brown when bruised and grey when dried.

[1] Datroniella tropica has a dimitic hyphal system, containing both generative and skeletal hyphae.