It was first described as Calvatia fumosa by American mycologist Sanford Myron Zeller in 1947,[2] and later transferred to Gastropila in 1976.

[3] Some authors place it instead in the genus Handkea, circumscribed by Hanns Kreisel in 1989.

[4] The fruit body is anywhere from golf ball size to baseball size, round to oval, 3–8 cm (1+1⁄8–3+1⁄8 in) broad, thick, at first smooth and white, soon becoming grayish to brownish.

The spores are firm and white at first, then yellowish or olive, and then dark brown and powdery.

[5] The species fruits singly, in groups, or in small clusters on soil in spruce-fir forests in the Rocky Mountains and westward in the summer and fall.