Odor:
strong, unpleasant, chemical, (Buczacki)

Taste:
indistinct (Buczacki)

Microscopic:
spores 9-16 x 4-7 microns, elliptic-oblong, blunt or subacute, smooth, white, thin-walled, cloudy vacuolate, no droplets; basidia 2-spored, 20-30 x 7-9 microns, clavate, sterigmata 4-5 microns long; cystidia frequent, varying from sterile basidia, 25-40 x 5-8 microns, "narrowed at the apex, to subconical or subventricose cells with subacute apex, thin-walled, colourless, smooth, rarely with a small subglobose stalked appendage with an abortive spore"; hymenium "continuous from the base, sometimes lacking from the extreme base or decomposing from below upward and the stem secondarily denudate, the sterile apex sometimes becoming fertile on cessation of growth", hymenium "not thickening: subhymenium very slightly developed, short-celled, or the basidia arising directly from the longitudinal hyphae"; caulocystidia "none or as scattered, rudimentary basidia or cystidia on the short sterile stem, -20 x 6 microns, thin-walled, obtuse"; hyphae dimitic: skeletal hyphae 2.5-3.5(4) microns wide, "the walls 0.5-1 microns thick, aseptate, rarely with a short branch, smooth, traversing the length of the fruit-body, abundant: generative hyphae 1.5-3 microns wide, thin-walled, clamped", (Corner(2)), spores 5.5-7.5 x 3-4 microns, elongated elliptic, smooth; cystidia club-shaped; basidia 2-spored; hyphal system dimitic, (Buczacki)

Spore Deposit:
white (Buczacki)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Ceratella aculina (Quel.) Pat.
Ceratella ferryi Quel.
Clavaria aculina Quel.
Cnazonaria aculina (Quel.) Donk
Pistillaria acicula Bourdot & Galzin
Pistillaria aculina (Quel.) Pat.
Pistillaria attenuata Syd. & Syd.
Pistillaria ferryi (Quel.) Sacc.
Pistillaria gracilis (Berk. et Desm.) Pat.
Pistillaria juncicola Bourdot et Galzin
Stereum rufum (Fr.) Fr.
Thelephora rufa Fr.