The mushrooms can be found on forest floors in autumn months; the species forms an ectomycorrhizal relationship to surrounding trees, favouring beech.

First described by Claude Casimir Gillet, the species retains the name which it was first given, but has a number of taxonomic synonyms.

Within the genus Inocybe, it has been classified in a number of ways, but appears to form part of a clade (that is, a group sharing a common ancestor) with species including I. abietis, I. corydalina, I. agglutinata and I. pudica.

Inocybe godeyi was first described, and given its current name, by French botanist and mycologist Claude Casimir Gillet in his 1874 work Les Hyménomycètes ou description de tous les champignons (fungi) qui croissent en France.

[3] British mycologist Mordecai Cubitt Cooke described a variety of the species, Inocybe godeyi var.

Gillet's own Inocybe rubescens, described in an 1883 issue of Revue Mycologique, is no longer seen as a separate taxon.

A 2002 phylogenetic study found that Singer's Geophyllinae is probably monophyletic (that is, the taxa all come from a common, recent ancestor) and suggested that I. godeyi forms a clade with species including I. abietis, I. corydalina, I. agglutinata and I. pudica.

[9] Inocybe godeyi flesh has a strong smell, which has been variously described as "unpleasant",[5] "earthy or mealy",[8] and "not distinctive".

[9] Consumption of the mushroom could lead to a number of physiological effects, including: salivation, lacrimation, urination, defecation, gastrointestinal problems and emesis (vomiting); this array of symptoms is also known by the acronym SLUDGE.

[10] Other potential effects include a drop in blood pressure, sweating and death due to respiratory failure.

[5] Mushrooms are encountered in the autumn months of August to November,[5][8] solitarily or in "trooping groups".