[1][2] Called pinkgills in English, basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are agaricoid, mostly mycenoid (like species of Mycena) with slender stems.

Recent DNA evidence has shown that at least 87 species belong to the subgenus Nolanea which has a worldwide distribution.

[3] The taxon Nolanea was introduced in 1821 by the Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries as a "tribe" of Agaricus comprising slender agarics with bell-shaped caps, hollow stems, and pink spores.

[5] The name was used by many subsequent mycologists,[6][7][8] but others have preferred to use the name Entoloma sensu lato for all fungi with pink, angular spores, retaining Nolanea as a subgenus.

[9] Recent molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, has shown that Nolanea, as previously defined, is paraphyletic (an artificial grouping).