Boletus rawlingsii is an endemic New Zealand bolete associated with Myrtaceae forest (manuka/kanuka) scrub, recognised by its dull yellow to grey-yellow cap, bright golden-yellow pores, yellow unchanging flesh, and broadly elliptic-subfusiform spores.

Cap: 50-115 mm diam., convex when young to applanate at maturity; old specimens may have reflexed margins. Surface dry, finely felted to subtomentose. Colour dull yellow to greyish-yellow. Cuticle: a poorly organised trichodermium when young; becomes a disorganised cutis of interwoven, thin-walled hyphae (terminal cells 5-8 µm). Margin entire, incurved, slightly more tomentose than the rest of the cap.
Pores & Tubes: Tubes up to 7 mm long, adnate to subdecurrent. Pallid yellow when youn got bright gold-yellow at maturity. Pores 1-1.5 mm, irregularly angular, concolorous with tubes; sometimes reddish-brown discolouration in places. No colour change when damaged.
Stipe: 30-50 mm long x 20-35 mm diam., solid. Surface dry, subglabrous to finely subvelutinate due to a palisade of caulocystidia. Occasionally faintly reticulate at the extreme apex. Colour pastel yellow or slightly darker. No annulus.
Flesh: Pallid yellow to yellow, unchanging on exposure. Taste: unpleasant, slightly acrid. Smell: not distinctive.