 In their 1964 monograph on North American "Suillus" species, Alexander H. Smith and Harry Delbert Thiers transferred the species to "Suillus".Simultaneously, they described the "S. lakei" variety "pseudopictus" that they said had been misidentified by collectors as "Suillus pictus" (now called "Suillus spraguei") because of its reddish and scaly cap.Singer considered "Suillus amabilis" to be the same species as "S. lakei", but Smith and Thiers later examined the type material of both, and concluded that they were distinct species.