[1] A species of the Haemodoraceae family, once allied to the kangaroo paws Anigozanthus, but recognised as a separate and monotypic sister genus named Macropidia.

Drummond wrote of this species as a flower of mourning, and provided the epithet in reference to the recently deceased Georgiana Molloy, an early botanical collector of the region.

The first published description by W. J. Hooker in the Botanical Magazine provided the name Anigozanthos fuliginosa in 1847,[4] but its later separation by Drummond and William Henry Harvey to a new genus in 1855 used Macropidia fumosa.

The priority of the Hooker's earlier epithet was recognised by G. C. Druce, who established its revision as the current name Macropidia fuliginosa in 1917.

[3] Macropidia fuliginosa can be germinated from seed for cultivation, but with difficulty,[3] commercial production instead uses tissue culture as a means of propagation.

[8][11] Macropidia fuliginosa is found in a distribution range extending north from Muchea to Walkaway, favouring low mallee and heath vegetation on white or lateritic sand of the Southwest Australia bioregion.