Members of the Sclerodermatineae have
fruit body shapes ranging from
boletoid (with a
cap,
stipe, and tubes on the underside of the cap) to
gasteroid. Boletoid fruit bodies sometimes have hollow stipes with a surface that is smooth to somewhat furfuraceous (covered with flaky particles), and lack the reticulation (a net-like pattern of interlacing lines) characteristic of some members of the
Boletaceae. The pores are
merulioid (wrinkled with low, uneven ridges), boletinoid, and either fine or coarse. The
flesh is usually whitish to yellowish, and some species exhibit a blue staining reaction upon injury.
In mass, spores are yellow; microscopically, the spores are
ellipsoid in shape and have a smooth surface. Gasteroid fruit body types are either roughly spherical or tuberous, occasionally with stipes, and usually have a
peridium that is either simple or multi-layered. Mature gasteroid fruit bodies generally open irregularly at maturity to expose a powdery
gleba with a color ranging from white to yellow or black-brown to black.
Capillitia are generally absent from the gleba. Spores are spherical or nearly so, and have a surface texture that ranges from smooth to wart-like and spiny, or sometimes with reticulations.
Hyphae have
clamp connections. ==Morphological diversity==