[4] Until 1981 the starting point for the nomenclature of the corticioid fungi was the publication of Fries' first volume of the Systema mycologicum, which was set at January 1, 1821.

Despite being synonyms under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN), Corticium and Peniophore were used in this encompassing sense well into the 20th century.

When Cooke described Peniophora, he incorporated many crustlike species whose fruit bodies possess in the hymenium sterile, hair-like structures termed cystidia.

Subsequent investigators, such as Bresadola and Burt accepted and expanded upon Cooke's concept of the genus, placing in it nearly all corticiaceous species that produced cystidia.

[9] Later attempts to refine the infrageneric classification of Peniophora included morphology, physiology, development, cytogenetics, cytology and biochemistry.