Nigritella miniata was described by CRANTZ in 1769 as Orchis miniata, and its synonym Nigritella rubra by Wettstein (WETTST.) in 1889 as Gymnadenia rubra; both descriptions were based on red-flowering plants from the Rax-Schneeberg region southwest of Vienna. Wolfram Foelsche recognized that most of the light- to middle-red flowering Nigritella occurring in big parts of the Alps, which were then called Nigritella rubra or Nigritella miniata, don't match with the typus population of the Rax-Schneeberg region. So he described the clan, which is wide spread between Switzerland and the Carpathians, newly as Nigritella bicolor in 2010 in J.Eur.Orch. 42 (1): 31-82. Similar plants are also occurring in Northwest Greece.
The remaining populations of Nigritella miniata are found, often alongside Nigritella bicolor, mainly in the eastern part of the Eastern Alps, ranging roughly from the Koralpe in southern Carinthia to the Obere Schönfeldalm in Bavaria.