Pleurochaete luteola is a usually robust species with an aspect similar to Symblepharis. When dry its leaves are erect-clasping at base, flare outward with wavy margins at the top of the sheathing base and are curled, spirally contorted above. The leaves are bordered nearly 2/3 their length by enlarged, bulging, hyaline cells that are consistently denticulate above, and its upper and basal cells are distinctly different. There does not seem to be a correlation between plant size and leaf border development in P. luteola since even small expressions of the species have a well-developed leaf border. Although the basal leaf cells in Central American material of P. luteola are consistently elongate to rectangular, some collections of the species from North America have considerably shorter cells. This basal leaf cell variability does not appear correlated with the variation in any other feature of P. luteola.

This species is sometimes considered synonymous with (Crum & Anderson 1981, Zander 1994a) or treated as a variety of P. squarrosus (Brid.) Lindb. (Zander (1993). Pleurochaete squarrosus differs from P. luteola in having a Tortella-like habit (i.e., with leaves when dry stiffly erect and incurved below with the costa prominently displayed at back), a weaker, thinner leaf border that does not exceed 1/2  the leaf length, and entire leaf margins.

Pleurochaete luteola is restricted to the New World where it occurs in Virginia (Patterson S.W. 23, MO), throughout Tennessee, Georgia (Sharp G-883, NY), Alabama (Bowers 15236, MO), Mississippi (Bryson 2732, MO), Arkansas (Allen 6301, MO), Texas (Goodding H-6604, MO), Hispaniola, and from Mexico to Peru. Although P. squarrosus is widely distributed throughout the world, in the New World it is only found in North America (Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico).