 Originally the new species was called "Linum congestum" by Asa Gray, although he described it in the section "Hesperolinon" within the same publication in the year 1865.It was J.K. Small who conveyed the discrete genus "Hesperolinon" to this plant in 1907.By 1925 Jepson designated the genus "Hesperolinon" as a sector of the genus "Linum" and described "Hesperolinon congestum" as a subspecies of L. californicum.