This lichen was originally formally described by Finnish lichenologist Edvard August Wainio as Pannaria sorediata, based on material collected from the Philippines.

[2] However, Wainio was unaware that this name had already been used for another taxon by Charles Knight in 1882, and so the name Pannaria sorediata Vain.

[3] Austrian botanist Alexander Zahlbruckner, in his 1925 work Catalogus Lichenum Universalis, renamed the lichen in honour of Wainio, and it then became known as Pannaria wainioi Zahlbr..[4] Per Magnus Jørgensen transferred the species to the genus Parmeliella in 2003.

[5] In 2014, the family Pannariaceae was revised with the aid of modern molecular phylogenetics, and Parmeliella wainioi (Zahlbr.)

It was also reported from Koh Kut Island (Thailand) in 2016, where it was found growing in an Avicennia-Sonneratia mangrove zone.