The species was first described scientifically as Boletus viscosus by American mycologist Charles Frost in 1874.
Agaricales specialist Rolf Singer included Suillus brevipes in the subsection Suillus of genus Suillus, an infrageneric (a taxonomic level below genus) grouping of species characterized by a cinnamon-brown spore print, and pores less than 1 mm wide [REF].