Distributed throughout the boreal conifer zone, the fungus is found in mountainous regions of western North America, and in Europe.

The species was originally described as Fomes alboluteus by Job Bicknell Ellis and Benjamin Matlack Everhart in 1895.

Collected by botanist Charles Spencer Crandall,[2] the type specimens were found growing on the charred trunks of Abies subalpina in the mountains of Colorado, at an elevation of 10,000 feet (3,000 m).

Fresh fruit bodies are bright orange, finely grooved, and have a soft and spongy upper surface.

[14] All tissues of the fungus turn bright red if a drop of dilute potassium hydroxide is applied.

Pycnoporellus alboluteus has a monomitic hyphal system, meaning it is made of generative hyphae, which are thin-walled, branched, and narrow.

[13] Field characteristics used to identify Pycnoporellus alboluteus include its orange color, toothlike pore edges, and the soft texture of its flesh.

[15] The shelf-like fruit bodies of Pycnoporellus fulgens have distinct caps,[16] smaller pores measuring 0.3–0.5 mm, and less tendency to be pulled away from the substrate in sheets.

[18] Another orange fungus, Ceriporia spissa, is tightly appressed to the wood substrate, with a soft, gelatinous body texture.

[19] In North America, the fruit bodies begin growth under snow in the spring, continuing until midsummer, while in Europe, it is usually encountered in autumn.

[13] It is abundant in the Rocky Mountain region of North America,[20] but rare in the eastern United States and Canada.

[23] It is rare in northern Europe, where it has been found in Finland growing on Picea abies and Alnus incana,[24] and in Sweden.