The lichen was first formally described in 1942 as a new species by French lichenologist Maurice Bouly de Lesdain, as "Parmelia graminicola". The type specimens were collected in Las Vegas, New Mexico by Brother Arsène Brouard, near the Chimayo Dam at an altitude of . Although the specific epithet "graminicola" suggests Gramineae as the substrate, Bouly indicates that the lichen was found growing on mosses and the spikemoss "Selaginella". Bouly de Lesdain kept this material, and other collections sent to him by Brouard, at his private herbarium in Dunkirk. The herbarium was destroyed during the bombing of Dunkerque in World War II, and his collections were destroyed. After the loss of the type material, the name "Parmelia graminicola" was often later relegated to synonymy with "Punctelia subrudecta". In his original description of "Parmelia graminicola", Bouly de Lesdain had noted its similarity to "P. subrudecta".