[2] The species has a conidia-bearing anamorph in the Tuberculina persicina complex that is a parasite of rust fungi.

[2] Helicobasidium purpureum was first described from France in 1885 by French mycologist Narcisse Patouillard to accommodate a species with an effused, purple, corticioid fruit body and unusual curved or helicoid basidia.

Patouillard was apparently unaware that Edmond Tulasne had described the same or a similar species under the name Hypochnus purpureus in 1865.

Initial molecular research, based on cladistic analysis of DNA sequences, indicates that at least two species occur in the H. purpureum complex in Europe.

[2] Persoon had described a sclerotia-forming anamorph in 1801 as Sclerotium crocorum, moved by de Candolle in 1815 to his new genus Rhizoctonia.

Microscopically the hyphae are easily visible, 5–8 μm diam., brownish-purple, and lack clamp connections.

[1] Helicobasidium purpureum has been recorded mainly from temperate areas of America, Asia, and Europe.