A number of natural products have been identified from the fruit bodies, including unique chemical derivatives of ergosterol, a fungal sterol.

The species was first named 1936 as Boletus felleus forma plumbeoviolaceus by American mycologist Walter H. Snell and one of his graduate students, Esther A. Dick, based on specimens found in the Black Rock Forest near Cornwall, New York.

[1] Regarding his decision to use the taxonomic rank forma, Snell wrote: The writer hesitates to multiply the number of forms (formae) and varieties with distinctive names, because of the ease with which one develops the habit of interpreting slight variations as definite taxonomic units... the word "form" is used instead of "variety" as making no commitment as to the actual status of the variable segregate under consideration, until further information is available.

[1] The first collections made of the mushroom were of young, immature specimens, from which authors were unable to obtain spores for examination.

It was not until a few years after that they found mature fruit bodies, which revealed that the rosy color of the pore surface took some time to develop.

[2] Noted Agaricales taxonomist Rolf Singer later transferred the taxon to Tylopilus in 1947,[3] a genus characterized by a spore print that is pink, or wine red (vinaceous), rather than brown as in Boletus.

[4] The specific name "plumbeoviolaceus" is coined from the Latin adjectives plumbeus ("leaden" or "lead-colored") and violaceus ("purple").

[6] The cap of the fruit body is 7 to 15 cm (2.8 to 5.9 in) in diameter, initially convex in shape but becoming centrally depressed, with a broadly arched and rounded margin.

[8] The tubes on the underside of the cap are 0.4 to 1.8 cm (0.2 to 0.7 in) deep, 2 or three per millimeter, depressed at the stem (resulting in an adnate attachment).

[11] There are few other species that might be confused with Tylopilus plumbeoviolaceus; according to one source, it "is one of the most remarkable and easily identified boletes in the USA.

It differs from T. plumbeoviolaceous in having a cap that does not fade in color to grayish or brownish when mature, shorter spores (6–7.2 by 3.3–4 μm), and other microscopic characteristics.