The lichen was described as a new species in 1998 by lichenologists John Alan Elix and Thomas Hawkes Nash III.

It is named to honour Klaus Kalb, "who has collected widely in Brazil and has been a major contributor to our knowledge of tropical lichens".

The apothecia (reproductive organs) are common in this species; they are 2–3 mm wide with a concave, red-brown to dark brown disc.

Its conidia (asexual spores) are bifusiform (i.e., threadlike with a swelling at both ends), measuring 6–10 by 0.7–1.0 μm.

[1] Pseudoparmelia kalbiana contains secalonic acid as a major secondary chemical in the cortex with atranorin and chloroatranorin as minor metabolites.