Commonly known both as the noble polypore and the fuzzy Sandozi, this fungus produces large fruit bodies (or conks) that have been found to weigh up to 130 kilograms (290 lb).

The upper surface of the fruit body has a fuzzy or fibrous texture that often supports the growth of algae, bryophytes, or vascular plants.

Cooke learned of the fungus in 1948 while visiting Daniel Elliot Stuntz, who kept one of the large fruit bodies that he and Alexander H. Smith had previously collected in Mount Rainier National Park.

Cooke placed the fungus in this genus by despite not knowing definitively what type of rot it caused; he considered it to be closely related to Oxyporus populinus.

In 1996 the new genus Bridgeoporus was circumscribed by Harold Burdsall, Tom Volk and Joseph Ammirati to accommodate this species, in order to rectify incompatibilities with placements in Fomes and Oxyporus.

[4] Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial small-subunit rDNA sequences suggests that B. nobilissimus, which belongs in the hymenochaetoid clade, is closely related to the genera Oxyporus and Schizopora.

[5] The hymenochaetoid clade includes wood-decaying species previously classified variously in the families Corticiaceae, Polyporaceae and Stereaceae.

[5] The cap surface of young fruit bodies are covered with a dense mat of white mycelial fibers (up to several millimeters long) that in age darken in color and often become stuck together at their tips.

Although the surface is typically brown or darker, it may appear green due to epiphytic associations with algae such as Coccomyxa or Charicium species.

[4] The fruit bodies (also called conks) of Bridgeoporus are found singly or sometimes in overlapping layers on old trees (1–2 m (3+1⁄4–6+7⁄12 ft) diameter at breast height) of noble fir (Abies procera), and more rarely Pacific silver fir (Abies amabilis) or western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla).

Using genetic markers to detect the fungus mycelium in hosts, researchers found that B. nobilissimus was present at low to moderate levels and widespread in forest stands containing at least a single visible fruit body.