The puffball is more or less round with a diameter of up to 15 cm (6 in), white becoming brownish in age, and covered with shallow pyramid-shaped plates or scales.

The species is named for its resemblance to Calvatia sculpta, from which it can be usually distinguished in the field by its less prominent pyramidal warts, and microscopically by the antler-like branches of its capillitium (thread-like material among the spores).

Calbovista subsculpta is a good edible species while its interior flesh (the gleba) is still firm and white.

In her 1935 Mycologia article, American mycologist Elizabeth Eaton Morse noted the existence of an abundant and widely distributed puffball of the western United States that was commonly misidentified as Calvatia sculpta, although it differed from that species in having extensively branched capillitial threads.

[2] Morse's publication of the genus was invalid because it lacked a description in Latin—a requirement of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature that was implemented effective January 1, 1935.

[5] Calbovista is usually classified in the family Lycoperdaceae,[6][7] although the nomenclatural status of this group is unclear, as some authorities lump it into the Agaricaceae.

The specific epithet subsculpta refers to its resemblance to Calvatia sculpta, a species with which it had been frequently confused.

They have parallel markings, a feature Morse attributed to the differences in growth rate caused by variations in daytime and nighttime temperatures.

The puffball base, which occupies about a third to a quarter of the bottom of the fruit body, consists of moderately-sized chambers that persist even after the gleba has matured and the spores have dispersed.

Although the latter species has prominent pyramidal warts, some specimens of Calbovista (especially young ones) may share this feature and the distinction between them becomes blurred.

Another lookalike, Mycenastrum corium, has a smooth peridium, a reduced or absent base,[18] tends to split open in maturity into irregularly shaped sections,[2] and has spiny capillitial threads.

[18] Calvatia booniana is a large puffball—up to 60 cm (24 in) in diameter—found in open pastures and grassy areas of the western United States that has flat polygonal scales on the outer peridium.

In addition to its larger size, it differs from Calbovista in that it lacks a sterile base[18] and its capillitia are less branched and have septa.

Fruiting occurs from April to August in areas with broken rocks mixed with soil, or in open coniferous forest at elevations ranging from 900 to 3,400 m (3,000 to 11,000 ft).