[3] German naturalist Jacob Christian Schäffer described the species as Agaricus russula in 1774.

[4] The species name is derived from its reddish coloration, reminiscent of members of the genus Russula.

[5] French botanist Claude Casimir Gillet placed it in the genus Tricholoma in 1878, before American naturalist Calvin Henry Kauffman transferred it to Hygrophorus in 1918.

Though Kauffman thought it resembled Tricholoma, he held that its waxy gills showed it to be better suited to the genus Hygrophorus.

[5] The fruit bodies, or mushrooms, can be abundant some years, especially after rainfall, sometimes appearing in arcs or fairy rings.