Summary:
Features include shelf-like or flat growth on hardwood, whitish caps, small whitish pores, a glancing pore surface, and microscopic characters including small narrow spores.

Odor:
of Heterobasidion annosum (Breitenbach)

Taste:
slightly bitter (Breitenbach)

Microscopic:
spores 3-5 x 0.5-1.0 microns, allantoid, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 11-17 x 3.5-5 microns, clavate, with basal clamp; cystidia none, fusoid cystidioles rare and inconspicuous, hyphal pegs present and usually abundant; hyphae trimitic, generative hyphae of context 2-3.5 microns wide, "thin-walled, nodose-septate, with occasional branching", skeletal hyphae of context 3-5 microns wide, thick-walled, nonseptate, with rare branching, binding hyphae of context developing from lateral branches on generative hyphae, 1.5-2 microns wide, thick-walled, much branched, nonseptate; generative hyphae of trama 2-2.5 microns wide, nodose-septate, (Gilbertson), spores 3.5-4 x 0.5-0.7 microns, cylindric, allantoid, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, (Breitenbach)

Spore Deposit:
white (Buczacki)

Notes:
Skeletocutis nivea has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, MB, NB, NS, ON, PQ, AL, AZ, CA, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, VT, and WI, (Gilbertson). It also occurs in Europe and Asia, (Breitenbach).

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Incrustoporia nivea (Jungh.) Ryvarden
Leptoporus chioneus (Fr.) Quel.
Leptotrimitus semipileatus (Peck) Pouzar
Polyporus niveus Jungh.
Polyporus semipileatus Peck
Tyromyces semipileatus (Peck) Murrill