The species was first described by German naturalist Johann Christian Daniel Edler von Schreber in 1771 under the name of Lichen aculeatus.

Later on, Erik Acharius, the "father of lichenology" gave it a name of Cornicularia aculeata, which lately has been changed to Coelocaulon aculeatum.

Finally, the taxonomic revision of Ingvar Kärnefelt and colleagues assigned the species to the genus Cetraria.

There are several morphologically very similar and genetically closely related species that are united under the name of Cetraria aculeata complex.

[5][6] The phenomenon observed is due to existence of so-called cryptic species, which has been reported for many groups of organisms.