An imperfect form of the fungus, lacking a sexually reproductive stage in its life cycle, is classified as the species Molliardiomyces dudleyi.

[2] American mycologist Charles Horton Peck, who described it in the 1894 Annual Report of the New York State Botanist, named it Peziza Dudleyi after its discoverer.

S. korfiana S. occidentalis S. mesocyatha S. dudleyi S. emarginata S. hosoyae The phylogenetic relationships in the genus Sarcoscypha were analyzed by Francis Harrington in the late 1990s.

[8][9] The cladistic analysis combined comparison of sequences from the internal transcribed spacer in the non-functional RNA with fifteen traditional morphological characters, such as spore features, fruit body shape, and degree of hair curliness.

Based on this analysis, S. dudleyi is part of a clade of evolutionarily related taxa that includes the species S. occidentalis, S. emarginata, S. hosoyae, S. korfiana and S. mesocyatha.

[12] Anamorphic or imperfect fungi are those that seem to lack a sexual stage in their life cycle, and typically reproduce by the process of mitosis in structures called conidia.

[2][13] Sarcoscypha dudleyi is a saprobic species,[14] and derives nutrients by breaking down the complex insoluble polysaccharides found in woody material, such as cellulose and lignin.