Found in Costa Rica, it was described as new to science in 2003 by Spanish mycologist Francisco D. Calonge.

The outermost tissue layer, the exoperidium, is brown and has a cork-like texture; the endoperidium is thin and paperlike.

Inside the puffball, the gleba is initially yellowish-brown before changing to dark brown and woolly as the spores mature.

The specific epithet sporocristata refers to the crest-forming spines on the spores.

Similar Calvatia species include C. lepidophara and C. longicauda, but these lookalikes can be readily distinguished from C. sporocristata by differences in spore ornamentation.