Like all boletes, P. bembae has fleshy fruit bodies that form spores in tubes perpendicular to the ground on the underside of the cap.

The fungus grows in a mycorrhizal relationship with Gilbertiodendron dewevrei, the dominant tree species of the Guineo-Congolian rainforest.

Other similar Pulveroboletus species in the area include P. annulus and P. croceus, which may be differentiated from P. bembae by a combination of macro- and microscopic characteristics.

This section, defined by Singer in 1947,[4] is characterized by the presence of a pulverulent-arachnoid veil (covered with fine, powdery wax granules and cobwebby) and fruit bodies that are sulphur-yellow, greenish, or yellowish-brown in color.

[5] The specific epithet is derived from the word bemba, a name used by the Baka people for the tree Gilbertiodendron dewevrei that is associated with the fungus.

It reaches 30–35 mm (1.2–1.4 in) in diameter, and the color is almost uniformly rust-brown to reddish brown, although young specimens have a slightly paler margin (edge).

The cap cuticle is made of a thin physalo-palisadoderm—a type of tissue where the ends of the hyphae reach the same length and form a palisade of cells; these short anticlinal hyphae are 20–40 by 5–8 μm, and support one or two inflated, brownish, spherical to spheropedunculate (somewhat spherical with a stem) terminal elements that are 25–45 μm wide, non-amyloid, thin-walled, and do not have any encrustations.

The squamules on the cap surface have a physalo-palisadodermic arrangement made of short anticlinal hyphae that support elongated inflated elements of 15–30 by 10–15 μm and some scattered basidia.

Two similar species in the same area include P. annulus and P. croceus, described in 1951 by Belgian mycologist Paul Heinemann, based on specimens collected in the Congo.

[2] Although the identity of these two species is not fully clarified because of insufficient collections, P. bembae differs from both in its larger cystidia, its cream-colored flesh with pale reddish-brown to light brown tones under the cap cuticle (compared to white in P. annulus and P. croceus), its yellow mycelium (white in P. annulus and P. croceus), and differences in ecology.

The ectomycorrhizal symbiosis is thought to contribute to the success of the dominant species, by allowing it access to nutrients otherwise unavailable.