There have long been differing opinions as to how mushrooms which were assigned to genus Lepista (sometimes also placed in genus Clitocybe) should be classified. The fungi in question all have a white or slightly pink/yellow spore print, finely warty spores, and easily separable gills. In 1981 Jörg H. Raithelhuber identified as separate a subgroup having very crowded strongly decurrent gills and spores which are oval in section to almost spherical, including Lepista flaccida and Lepista gilva. He proposed this subgroup as a new genus Paralepista. In the following years it was recognized at the level of a subgenus (also called "Lepista section Inversae" or "Lepista sect. Gilva), but not as a genus.
