Found in North America, it was described as new to science in 1872 by mycologist Charles Horton Peck.

The cap surface is dry, tomentose, or even somewhat felt-like, and the colour is brownish to yellowish-brown.

On the cap underside are dark brown to maroon pores that age to brownish yellow.

[3] Boletus vermiculosoides, a lookalike species named for its resemblance to B. vermiculosus, has smaller spores measuring 9–12 by 3–4 μm, and has yellow tones in the cap.

Its distribution extends from the eastern United States south to Costa Rica.