Summary:
Features include 1) resupinate growth on wood, usually of conifers, 2) a thin, delicate, densely porous-reticulate fruitbody that is whitish to grayish then pale ochraceous, the surface bristly from long protruding cystidia, 3) spores that are elliptic, smooth, and inamyloid, 4) cystidia of 2 types: a) awl-shaped, protruding, thick-walled, the capillary lumen with a slight expansion toward the thin-walled apex, dissolving in KOH, amyloidity usually strong, the cystidia often with more than 2 roots, and b) capitate, often with several constrictions, sometimes with amorphous encrustation, 5) a monomitic hyphal system, the hyphae with clamp connections.

Microscopic:
SPORES 5.5-6.5 x 3-3.5(3.8) microns, elliptic, with adaxial side concave or straight, smooth, thin-walled; BASIDIA 4-spored, 15-20 x 4.5-5 microns, subclavate (often with median constriction and oily protoplasm), thin-walled, inamyloid, with a basal clamp connection; CYSTIDIA of 2 types: 1) lyocystidia, conic - awl-shaped, often with more than 2 roots, 100-200 microns long and in the middle part 10 microns wide, thick-walled, "capillary lumen normally with a very slight expansion towards the thin-walled apex", amyloidity variable but usually strong, and 2) capitate subhymenial cystidia, sparse, 20-30 microns long, "often with several constrictions", "sometimes with amorphous encrustation"; HYPHAE monomitic, 2.5-3 microns wide, with clamp connections, "thin-walled or with slight wall thickening", "forming a thin and in most cases inamyloid, fairly dense tissue, subhymenial layer loose with hyphae and basidia often clinging slightly to the cystidia-bases", (Hjortstam), SPORES (4)5-7(7.5) x 2.25-3.5(4) microns, broadly elliptic to cylindric, smooth, inamyloid, thin-walled; BASIDIA 4-spored, 10-18 x 3.5-4.5(5.5) microns, "cylindric, rarely subclavate, often with decumbent base", sterigmata 5-5.5(7) microns long, slender, more or less arcuate; CYSTIDIA 60-180 microns long and (4.5)7-10(12.5) microns wide just above the branching base, conic, pointed, (some hypha-like, only 2.75-3 microns wide throughout), lumina more or less capillary, walls thick, smooth, "in different specimens differing in amyloidity from questionably amyloid to deeply so, very sensitive to KOH, swelling and finally dissolving", cystidial stem "usually more or less entwined with clamped hyphae 2-2.5 microns wide"; SUBICULUM indistinct, of hyphae 1.75-2.5(3) microns wide, with clamp connections and with more or less pronounced walls, (Weresub(3)), CYSTIDIA bi-rooted or multi-rooted, at maturity mainly 100-200 microns long, typically conic and tapering uniformly, (occasional cylindric or subclavate types, these usually immature, some hyphal cystidia also present), varying from inamyloid to amyloid, all but outer wall soluble in 10% KOH, also CYSTIDIOLES (?basidioles) 15-25 microns long and 3-5 microns wide at base, with head 3.5-4.2 x 4.5-5.5 microns, "sometimes haloed by an oily mass", (Weresub(4))

Notes:
Tubulicrinis chaetophorus has been found in BC, OR, ID, ON, PQ, AZ, CA, MA, NM, NY, and PA, (Ginns), as well as Austria, France, (Weresub(3)), Norway, and Sweden, (Hjortstam).