[1][2] It was described in 1871 by the English botanists and mycologists Miles Joseph Berkeley and Christopher Edmund Broome who classified it as Agaricus (Lepiota) russoceps.

[3] In 1887 it was reclassified as Lepiota russoceps by the Italian mycologist Pier Andrea Saccardo[4] and then as Mastocephalus russoceps in 1891 by the German botanist Otto Kunze,[5] however Kunze's Mastocephalus genus, along with most of 'Revisio generum plantarum' was not widely accepted by the scientific community of the age so it remained a Lepiota.

Stem: 4cm long and 1.5mm thick at the top with a claviform taper to 4mm wide at the base.

The surface is paler than the cap sometimes with a slight greenish tint with age whilst the interior is stuffed with white flesh.

[6] The specimens studied by Berk and Broome were found on the ground in June 1860 in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).