 The species was first described scientifically by Miles Joseph Berkeley and Moses Ashley Curtis in 1859 as Agaricus ravenelii. Pier Andrea Saccardo transferred it to the genus Amanita in 1887. It is in the subsection Solitariae, section Lepidella in the genus Amanita. Other North American species in the section Lepidella include A. abrupta, A. atkinsoniana, A. chlorinosma, A. cokeri, A. daucipes, A. mutabilis, A. onusta, A. pelioma, A. polypyramis, and A. rhopalopus.
