The genus was circumscribed by Joan Cribb in 1956, based on specimens she found growing in the woods of Mount Glorious, Queensland in February the previous year.

[4] In his second (1962) edition of his influential Agaricales in Modern Taxonomy, Rolf Singer placed Gymnogaster in the Gastroboletaceae, (a family that has since been folded into the Boletaceae),[5] in which he also included the genera Austrogaster, Truncocolumella, Gautieria, Chamonixia, Brauniellula, and Gastroboletus.

The base of the fruit body is depressed and rounded, yellow; at the apex, the fixed part is russet red.

[3] Fruit bodies of G. boletoides will turn bright blue immediately upon being handled or bruised, and slowly change color to dark brown.

[7] The fungus grows in wooded areas, and has been collected in Mount Glorious, Queensland,[3] including Lamington National Park.