Caladenia longicauda was first formally described by John Lindley in 1840 and the description was published in A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony. In 2001 Stephen Hopper and Andrew Brown described eleven subspecies, including subspecies albella and the descriptions were published in Nuytsia. The subspecies name (albella) is a diminutive of the Latin word albus meaning “white", hence "small white" referring to the flowers of this orchid.
