Described by Japanese mycologist Eiji Nagasawa in 1994, it is named after Naohide Hiratsuka.

B. hiratsukae is identified by a dark brown to sooty color of both the pileus and stipe, a "dry, pruinose-subvelutinous pileus without any rugosity throughout its development," and a "palisade trichodermium structure of pileipellis" where hyphae often form a bead-like structure with short, inflated terminal and sub-terminal cells.

Populations of Boletus variipes found east of the Rocky Mountains are sister species to B. hiratsukae, with B. variipes from Central America and southeastern North America sister to the combined lineage.

[2] Within the genus Boletus, B. hiratsukae resembles B. aereus and B. variipes Pk.

[1] A study investigating the spatial distribution of radiocaesium in wild mushrooms and soil contaminated by the Fukushima accident concluded that the concentration of radiocaesium in B. hiratsukae did not rely on the distance between the mushrooms.