Summary:
Features include shelf-like or flat growth on conifer wood, thin fruiting bodies, pale tomentose to hairy caps that may be zoned or grooved, a cartilaginous-appearing pinkish to orange pore surface, a gelatinous layer deep to the pores, and microscopic characters including small allantoid spores. "When fresh, the cartilaginous texture and orange to pink mottling on the pore surface are distinctive" (Ginns).

Odor:
indistinct (Breitenbach)

Taste:
slightly bitter, (Gilbertson), indistinct (Breitenbach)

Microscopic:
spores 3-4.5 x 1.3-1.8 microns, allantoid [curved sausage-shaped], smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 14-16 x 4-5 microns, clavate, with basal clamp; cystidia none; cystidioles present, 12-18.5 microns x 3.5-4.5 microns, fusoid, thin-walled, not incrusted, with basal clamp; hyphae dimitic, generative hyphae of context 2-6 microns wide, colorless, becoming thick-walled, with clamp connections, skeletal hyphae of context 3-6 microns, colorless, thick-walled, nonseptate, with rare branching; hyphae of trama similar, (Gilbertson), spores 3-4 x 1-1.5 microns, cylindric, allantoid, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, (Breitenbach)

Spore Deposit:
white (Buczacki)

Notes:
Skeletocutis amorpha has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, AB, ON, PQ, AR, AZ, CA, CO, MD, ME, MS, MT, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, TX, VA, WY, and circumglobally, (Gilbertson). It has also been found in Europe and Asia, (Breitenbach).

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Hypoxylon deustum (Hoffm.: Fr.) Grev.
Polyporus amorphus Fr.
Ustulina deusta (Hoffm.: Fr.) Lind